Thursday's ETF Winners & Losers

The Broadband HOLDRs (BDH Quote) exchange-traded fund was one of the best performers of Thursday's session, aided by a broker upgrade of one of its main holdings.

Earlier, Lehman Brothers raised its rating for Motorola (MOT Quote) to overweight from equal-weight, citing improvements in the company's phone unit. Shares of Motorola were adding 2.7%

The Broadband HOLDRs was higher by 22 cents, or 1.5%, at $14.90.

Other tech-related ETFs were also trading higher, benefiting not only from Motorola's gain but increases in Apple (AAPL Quote), Cisco (CSCO Quote), Applied Materials (AMAT Quote) and SanDisk (SNDK Quote), all of which helped the Nasdaq Composite overcome early weakness.

The First Trust Nasdaq 100 Tech Index (QTEC Quote) was up 45 cents, or 2.1%, to $22.06. The Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (USD Quote) ETF was gaining $1.37, or 1.7%, to $84.51. The Ultra Technology ProShares (ROM Quote) ETF rose $1.10, or 1.4%, to $79.

On the other hand, financial and bank-related bundled securities continued to weaken. Related stocks were under pressure on fears that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will offer no solace to liquidity issues when he delivers a speech on monetary policy on Friday.

The Ultra Financials ProShares (UYG Quote) ETF was losing 91 cents, or 1.7%, to $53.82. The iShares S&P Global Financials (IXG Quote) ETF was down $1.40, or 1.6%, to $85.02. The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks (IAT Quote) ETF was off 68 cents, or 1.5%, to $45.88.

Bundled securities following retailers were also weaker due to a downgrade and earnings news out of the sector.

Sears Holdings (SHLD Quote) said after the last close that both net income and sales fell during the second quarter. Results beat the Thomson First Call estimate on a per-share basis, but revenue was lower than expected.

Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch downgraded the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) to sell from neutral, citing shrinking margins.

The SPDR S&P Retail (XRT Quote) ETF was lower by 49 cents, or 1.2%, to $39.19. The PowerShares Dynamic Retail (PMR Quote) ETF was sliding by 14 cents, or 0.8%, to $18.19. The Retail HOLDRs (RTH Quote) ETF was off 56 cents, or 0.6%, to $99.99.