Thursday's ETF Winners & Losers

Exchange-traded funds tracking homebuilders were among the worst performers of a mixed session Thursday, as traders booked profits on housing stocks that have surged so far this week.

Recently, Hovnanian (HOV Quote), Toll Brothers (TOL Quote), D.R. Horton (DHI Quote), Lennar (LEN Quote) and Centex (CTX Quote) were all dropping.

The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (ITB Quote) was down 79 cents, or 3.5%, to $21.73. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB Quote) fell 65 cents, or 2.8%, to $22.90.

Oil-related ETFs were also on the decline, as crude continued its multi-session freefall that has lopped nearly 4% off prices. Lately, the November front-month crude contract was shedding 14 cents to $79.80.

The Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (DIG Quote) was losing $1, or 0.9%, to $109.18. The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment Index (IEZ Quote) was down 45 cents, or 0.7%, to $63.99. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE Quote) slid 44 cents, or 0.6%, to $74.03.

Bundled securities tracking the chip sector were also under pressure, a day after Micron's (MU Quote) disappointing quarter and Merrill Lynch's bearish coverage of Intel (INTC Quote), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD Quote) and Nvidia (NVDA Quote).

The Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (USD Quote) eased 89 cents, or 1%, to $86.86. The Semiconductor HOLDRs (SMH Quote) was down 19 cents, or 0.5%, to $37.97. The iShares S&P GSTI Semiconductor (IGW Quote) was shedding 36 cents, or 0.5%, to $67.17.

On the other hand, utility-related ETFs were among the few winners. Among individual names, FirstEnergy (FE Quote), Exelon (EXC Quote), Entergy (ETR Quote) and Edison International (EIX Quote) were all higher.

The Ultra Utilities ProShares (UPW Quote) was up $1.12, or 1.4%, to $82.44. The Utilities HOLDRs (UTH Quote) was rising $1.35, or 0.9%, to $147.75. The PowerShares FTSE RAFI Utilities (PRFU Quote) added 49 cents, or 0.9%, to $58.02.