Sector early indicator? No, Consumer Staples, not that much.

The Consumer Staples sector - here represented by Procter & Gamble (PG, in pink), Coca Cola (KO, in yellow) and PepsiCo (PEP, in purple) - are mostly not strong early indicators against the broader market (here represented by the DJIA in gray, and the NASDAQ in black)... KO & PEP fell from peaks in July 1998, then a period of over six months of weak underperforming prices from Dec 2014, a period of around two and a half months of weak underperforming prices from Aug 2017, then weak underperforming prices for KO & PEP during all of Aug 2018, and a period of around two and a half months of weak underperforming prices from mid Oct 2019.