This Week's ETF Winners & Losers

Housing-related exchange-traded funds were the best performers of week, after unexpectedly strong new-home sales data hinted that the sector may be close to bottoming.

Shortly after Thursday's session began, a Commerce Department report said that new-home sales rose 16.2% last month to an annual rate of 981,000 units. Economists were looking for only an 860,000 pace.

Housing ETFs managed to avoid pitfalls during the week, including Friday's weak report on existing-home sales, as well as a disappointing fiscal second-quarter earnings report from Toll Brothers (TOL Quote) on Thursday.

For the week, the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (ITB Quote) ETF added 3.2% to finish at $37.33. The SPDR Homebuilders (XHB Quote) ETF rose 2.6% to $35.52.

Bundled securities tracking the Internet sector also had a strong week. The sector was led higher by an 8.3% gain in Amazon.com (AMZN Quote). Elsewhere, EarthLink (ELNK Quote) tacked on 4%, BEA Systems (BEAS Quote) was higher by 3%, and Google (GOOG Quote) was up 2.8%.

The First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (FDN Quote) was the best performer of the Internet ETFs, finishing up 1.3% at $25.61. The Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (IIH Quote) added 1% to $5.16, and the Internet HOLDRs (HHH Quote) climbed 0.9% to $61.31.

On the losing side, bundled securities tracking chipmakers were the worst performers of the week. Following Tuesday's close, Analog Devices (ADI Quote) provided third-quarter guidance that fell short of expectations. JPMorgan also downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight. Analog Devices slumped 11.2% over the five sessions.

Among other chipmakers, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD Quote) shed 5.3% for the week, Xilinx (XLNX Quote) lost 4.9%, Texas Instruments (TXN Quote) fell 2.7%, and Intel (INTC Quote) eased 2.4%

The Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (USD Quote) ETF fell 4.7% to $76.35. The Semiconductor HOLDRs (SMH Quote) ETF was lower by 2.4% to $36.26. The iShares Goldman Sachs Semiconductor (IGW Quote) ETF was down 2.1% to $63.56. The PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors (PSI Quote) ETF eased 1.2% to $18.86.

Utility-related ETFs were also among the biggest losers. Among individual names, Exelon (EXC Quote) slid 6.6% for the week, Duke Energy (DUK Quote) eased 5.9%, and both FPL Group (FPL Quote) and American Electric Power (AEP Quote) were lower by 3.8%.

The Ultra Utilities ProShares (UPW Quote) shed 8.5% to $86.40. The Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU Quote) lost 3.9% to $85.78, and the Utility HOLDRs (UTH Quote) fell 3.8% to $145.88.