Don Dion's Weekly ETF Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are this week's winners and losers.

Winners

First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund(FBT) +12.4%

SPDR S&P Biotechnology(XBI) +4.8%

PowerShares Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Portfolio(PBE) +6.8%

Biotech ETFs showed strength throughout this week largely thanks to buyout news. The biggest spike came Monday when both Millipore(MIL) and OSI Pharmaceuticals(OSIP) made M&A headlines.

Merck KGaA, in an effort to improve its position in the industry, agreed to buy out Millipore, offering the firm more than $7 billion. Astellas Pharma made a $3.5 billion hostile takeover bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals.

Sequenom(SQNM) also jumped, after a Cantor Fitzgerald analyst upgraded the company's shares to buy from hold, while InterMune(ITMN) rallied on Friday when the market reacted positively to an FDA review of the firm's drug for a fatal lung disease.

Market Vectors Steel ETF(SLX) +8.9%

SLX rallied as iron ore price negotiations between top producers and Asian steelmakers continued this week. Currently, the talks are leaning strongly in favor of top ore producers like Rio Tinto(RTP) and Vale(VALE) which, if successful, could see an 80% hike in prices. This would be the second largest price increase in history and help pave the way for industry expansion.

Russian Steel giant Mechel aided SLX's strong performance this week when shares surged on news that the company had received a loan extension from Gazprombank, which extended $1 billion of loans to six years from three.

ETFS Physical Palladium Shares(PALL) +10.3%

Solid February sales numbers from the U.S.' Big Three auto makers helped power PALL higher, making it the top performing precious metal this week. Palladium and its cousin platinum typically rise in step with automobile demand because they are essential metals used in the production of catalytic converters.

Losers

United States Natural Gas Fund(UNG) -4.0%

iPath Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN(GAZ) -4.8%

Natural gas futures slumped to a three-month low on news that inventories dipped less than predicted. As expected ETFs designed to track the price of this fuel, including the infamous UNG, were dragged along for the ride. I have consistently warned investors that this fund is dangerous. Living up to my warnings, it managed to hit record lows this week.

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