Dion's Thursday ETF Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Welcome to Don Dion's Daily ETF Winners and Losers. Be sure to stop by each day to get a feel of who's winning and who's losing when it comes to ETFs.

Winners

Teucrium Corn ETF (CORN) 8.3%

Corn prices are surging higher on supply concerns, helping CORN undo the losses suffered earlier this week. The strength of this crop is helping to power other ag-related ETFs to strong gains. The iPath Dow Jones UBS Grains Total Return Subindex ETN (JJG) and the PowerShares DB Agriculture ETF (DBA) are among the biggest movers.

iPath Dow Jones UBS Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN (GAZ) 3.0%

Despite seeing an initial dip due to a less than favorable storage report form the Energy Information Administration, natural gas futures funds are heading higher. The premium laden GAZ is leading the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG).

The crisis sweeping Libya is thrusting crude prices into the spotlight and helping to power futures-based funds such as iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Subindex Total Return ETN (OIL) and United States Oil Fund (USO) to some of the day's biggest gains as well.

ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL) 1.4%

Palladium prices are strengthening, helping PALL continue to recover the ground lost during its early March breakdown.

Looking ahead, investors with exposure to PALL will want to keep a close eye on economic conditions around the world. Due to its extensive use across a number of industries, this white metal tends to follow broad market action.

Losers

Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR) -1.5%

The nuclear energy industry continues to react wildly as investors react to the daily headlines on the crisis in Japan.

Although both NLR and the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) have run into headwinds, the Market Vectors option has proven to be noticeably resilient. Year to date, the fund is down under 10% while URA has dipped close to 30%.

Continue to use extreme caution in this region of the marketplace.

iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector Index Fund (SOXX) -1.0%

The semiconductors are struggling, causing funds such as SOXX and the PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors Portfolio (PSI) to suffer some of the day's heaviest declines.

It will be interesting to see how these funds perform. Both have staged a comeback since the Japanese earthquake and are currently sitting at their 50-day moving averages.

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