• Why Does Shampoo Still Command a Stock-Market Premium?

    After the boardroom dramas of 2017, investors could wake up to the growth challenges facing consumer goods giants this year

    Big consumer groups face disruption everywhere, except in the stock market, where their shares remain close to record highs. Chief executives woke up to the growth challenge in 2017. How long will investors keep the faith?

    For companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestlé, sales growth excluding currency and portfolio effects has been sluggish for the past half-decade. The long shopping list of challenges includes: consumer tastes shifting away from highly processed products; low inflation, which has made it hard...

    Popular on WSJ