Winners & Losers

Return to Article

This Week's ETF Winners & Losers

TSC Staff

Utility-related exchange-traded funds suffered the most in a largely down week for the market, as high bond yields soured investor interest in the sector.

Utility stocks are normally attractive to investors for their steady dividends, but became less desirable as investors turned to bonds, as yields rose over 5% to their highest level in five years. Bond yields' rise subsided Friday, but not before sinking utility stocks like Exelon(EXC) and PG&E(PCG), each of which lost nearly 7% for the week.

The Ultra Utilities ProShares(UPW) lost $10.40, or 12%, to $78.84 for the week. Utilities HOLDRs(UTH) sunk $7.54, or 5.1%, to $140.16. The iShares Dow Jones US Utilities(IDU) shed $5.03, or 5%, to $96.39.

Real estate funds also suffered in a poor market, hurt by rising interest rates and poor performance by the sector's biggest names. The 30-year mortgage rate rose to its highest level in 10 months on Thursday and homebuilders Lennar(LEN) and Toll Brothers(TOL) both lost ground for the week.

Ultra Real Estate ProShares(URE) lost $5.63, or 9%, to $57.05. SPDR Homebuilders(XHB) sunk $1.31, or 3.7%, to $33.86.

Winners for the week were few and far between.

Oil-related funds performed well for much of the week, before being battered into weekly negative territory on Friday. Investor fears over the potential impact a deadly cyclone in the Persian Gulf would have on the energy market drove futures up much of the week. But crude prices dove more than $2 a barrel Friday, when the storm turned out to spare major oil infrastructure in the Middle East.

PowerShares DB Oil(DBO) edged down 40 cents, or 1.5%, to $26.03. The iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Index(OIL) ETF slipped 27 cents, or 0.7%, to $36.03.

One winner was the PowerShares DB Agriculture(DBA), which edged up 4 cents, or 0.2%, to $26.43 for the week.