This Week's ETF Winners & Losers

Exchange-traded funds tracking financial stocks were among the best performers this week as traders hoped -- again -- that banks are finally close to getting rid of the last of their soured assets.

The Ultra Financials ProShares (UYG Quote) soared 12.3% for the week. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF Quote), iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services (IYG Quote) and Vanguard Financials (VFH Quote) ETF added 5.9% or more.

Earlier this week, both UBS (UBS Quote) and Deutsche Bank (DB Quote) announced they'll be taking billions more in writedowns in the first quarter, leading traders to surmise that financial firms are making a final push to get rid of those bad assets and move past the subprime calamity that has dragged down the market. Also cheering traders was news that UBS and Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) have set plans to raise more capital.

Also doing well this week were commodities ETFs. PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC Quote) and iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG Quote) rose 1.1% and 2.1%, respectively.

With crude prices rising, the Oil Services HOLDRs (OIH Quote), PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services (PXJ Quote) and Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (DIG Quote) advanced 1.4% or more.

Bundled securities tracking gold-related stocks, however, took a collective slide as gold futures lost ground for the week. Over the past five trading sessions, PowerShares DB Gold (DGL Quote) lost 2%, the iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU Quote) shed 1.8%, and the streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD Quote) was off 1.8%.