Don Dion's Weekly ETF Winners and Losers

It was a wild week for the news and for the markets. The S&P 500 index gained on every single trading day and finished the week with a 4.5% advance.

Behind the scenes, there was much hand-wringing about the demise of the dollar, which picked up pace after gold neared the $1,060 level. Gold fell back to $1,049 on Friday after the greenback recovered.

Alcoa kicked off earnings season with a positive report. Charles Schwab(SCHW Quote), Intel(INTC Quote), Google(GOOG Quote) and Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) are some of the noteworthy companies reporting next week. It has been a few weeks since tech or financials were the biggest gainers or losers in a week.

Winners

Market Vectors Gold Miners(GDX Quote) +12.9%

Gold was the story of the week, and GDX rode the excitement to a new 52-week high. It was a week of high drama after British newspaper The Independent reported that Arab oil states, China, Russia, France and Japan held secret talks to end the pricing of oil in U.S. dollars, while later in the week, the Southeast Asian nations stepped in to support the dollar. All the while gold bugs were giving out price targets ranging from $1,500 an ounce to $5,000.

Claymore/Delta Global Shipping(SEA Quote) +11.8%

A small upturn in the Baltic Dry Index accompanied the ascent of SEA. It was a good week for the global reflation trade, with energy, gold and foreign currencies climbing. SEA isn't as strong as some other winners this week, however, as it's up less than 30% in the past three months and less than 10% in the past month.