Winners & Losers

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This Week's ETF Winners & Losers

Robert Holmes

Exchange-traded funds tracking financial names were among the worst decliners of a holiday-shortened week on Wall Street following more disappointing writedown news and several credit downgrades.

For the week, the iShares S&P Global Financials (IXG) ETF eased 3% to $79.67. The iShares Broker-Dealers (IAI) ETF slumped 1.6% to $50.81. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) ETF lost 1.5% to $28.86.

On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs increased its writedown projections for Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). The firm now expects a combined $33.6 billion in fourth-quarter writedowns to be announced.

During the same trading session, Fitch Ratings said it placed the credit ratings for residential mortgage-backed securities backed by bond insurers on watch for a possible downgrade. Among those that could be affected are securities insured by MBIA (MBI), Ambac Financial (ABK) and Security Capital Assurance (SCA).

Homebuilders also finished lower for the week. On Friday, the Census Bureau said that new-home sales plummeted 9% last month to 647,000 annualized units. Making things worse was news that new-homes inventory rose to 9.3 months.

The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (ITB) ETF gave back 4.7% to $17.25. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) ETF lost 3.1% to end the week at $18.87.

On the other hand, energy-related ETFs were among few winners of the week as crude added 2.9% over the four sessions, ending at $96 a barrel.

The iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index (OIL) rose 3.1% to $56.04. The PowerShares DB Oil (DBO) was up 2.9% to $34.57. The United States Oil (USO) added 2.8% to $75.90.

Bundled securities tracking gold futures were also higher for the week. Gold futures added 3.3% for the week to close at $842.70 an ounce.

The Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) ETF finished up 5.4% at $46.66. The iShares Comex Gold Trust (IAU) ETF climbed 3.6% to $83.03. The streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD) ETF rose 3.5% to $82.89.