Monday's ETF Winners & Losers

The Semiconductor HOLDRs (SMH Quote) was one of Monday's top performers, as holding Applied Materials (AMAT Quote) broke out to a new 52-week high of $20.62, a gain of 4.3%.

The increase comes ahead of the chipmaker's second-quarter earnings report, due after Tuesday's close. Analysts expect Applied Materials to post a profit of 28 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.

Recently, the Semiconductor HOLDRs was adding 17 cents, or 0.5%, to $38.15. Meanwhile, the iShares Goldman Sachs Semiconductor (IGW Quote) ETF tacked on 0.1% to $66.18, while Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (USD Quote) lost 0.2% and PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors (PSI Quote) eased 0.5%.

Also among winners was the HealthShares Emerging Cancer (HHJ Quote) ETF, rebounding slightly from the previous week's 16% decline. Holding Dendreon (DNDN Quote), which plummeted 68.5% last week after the Food and Drug Administration said it required more test data for the company's Provenge drug, was recently up 4%.

The HealthShares Emerging Cancer ETF was recently climbing by 37 cents, or 1.6%, to $22.91.

On the losing side, bundled securities tracking silver and gold were among the worst performers. Silver futures dipped 12 cents to $13.18 an ounce. Gold futures gave back early gains and was recently lower by $3.30 to $669 an ounce.

The PowerShares DB Base Metals (DBB Quote) ETF was losing 2.9% to $27.63. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV Quote) was down 0.5% to $130.83. The PowerShares DB Silver (DBS Quote) ETF was recently lower by 0.9% to $25.81. The Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX Quote) slipped 0.7% to $39.47.

The B2B Internet HOLDRs (BHH Quote) ETF was also among the losers of the day as holding Internet Capital Group (ICGE Quote) slumped 3% and Agile Software (AGIL Quote) slid 1.4%. The ETF was off 2 cents, or 1%, to $2.09.