ETF Midweek Peek

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

By David Gillie, Contributing Editor and subscriber to ETF Digest

NEW YORK (ETF Digest) -- Another light volume holiday week allowed the Algos to wander at will through the market usually hitting on the ugliest girl in the bar (most oversold). A relatively quiet week on the news front mostly lacking the daily miraculous "plan" rumor out of Europe.

All issues are average volume greater than 300K shares daily.

Virtually all of this week's performance has been directly Dollar related. Oil has been the strong player with Crude only dipping below the $100/bbl price briefly. No news is good news for Germany. Grains are the new kids on the block and beaten down Miners are getting attention from the hopeful fast money players.

Dividends remain the flavor-of-the-week. Yield-hungry investors have pushed prices up with little concern due to the fact that there's nowhere else to find return on investment. See HERE for a detailed analysis of the Alerian MLPs, which function much like REITs in the Energy Sector.

Santa put coal in the stockings of the bad boys and girls that bet against him. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Anybody have an eleven foot poll?  Nobody will touch Nat Gas with a ten-footer. Why? Because we have too much of it. Who in their right mind would want an energy source that is clean, abundant and cheap?

Alerian MLP Index is a no-brainer... 6% yield and 8% capital gain. This is a "Buy" for your 401k on a pullback.  Investors have left the Euro like a bad movie and are not at all interested in The Dollar with the Fed monkeying around with it. The Yen is the 'default' currency with Gold in the hands of speculators.

Kicking the European can down the road has brought relief to those most affected - Italy, France and US Financials. Traders concluded there wasn't much point in cherry-picking sectors so they just piled into the overall market S&P500 (SPY) which sent the S&P500 Megabull (UPRO) to the moon.

Silver is just a hot mess. The UltraShort is down as well as the Long Physical positions. Think "No win". Tech heavy Taiwan took a hit as traders fled the overbought Tech sector. Solar, beleaguered with scandals can't find a bottom as well as India on poor economic conditions. "Operation Twist" has the Fed selling short-term T-bills and buying long-term T-bills. The Fed just can't help themselves. After screwing up the Equity Markets, now they've turned their genius to the Bond Markets.

Yield hunters are skimming off profits in the new year. Gold and Oil day traders are battling it out. Nat Gas beckoning the "It Can't Get Any Lower" crowd. Commodity rich Indonesia is the benefactor of renewed interest in commodities. 

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This commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet guest contributor program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of TheStreet or its management.