Family Dollar Stores

You may be hearing a lot of bearish commentary centering on the premise that the market's advance is unsustainable because it has benefited so much from government spending.

But one big swath of the rise in stock prices has come from retailers, and it's hard to make a direct link between fiscal spending and chain store sales.

When the government pays for things like more highways and military goods, more people gain employment and then their families go out and purchase things at companies like Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) - a position in our Strategic Advantage portfolio that is fast on the rise. But that's really a "second-derivative" concept, as the statisticians say.

Employment and wage improvements have been the big catalysts.