This Week's ETF Winners & Losers
Homebuilding and construction-related exchange-traded funds were the best performers of the week, as several homebuilders benefited from an analyst upgrade.
On Monday, Citigroup upgraded
Centex
(CTX)
,
Lennar
(LEN) - Get Report
,
Pulte Homes
(PHM) - Get Report
,
D.R. Horton
(DHI) - Get Report
and
Ryland Group
(RYL)
to buy from hold, as the firm believed a near-term bounce was coming due.
Housing stocks also rallied Tuesday despite a weak report from the National Association of Realtors, which said that pending home sales dropped a greater-than-expected 6.5% in August. Economists expected a 2% decline in sales.
For the week, the
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction
(ITB) - Get Report
jumped 14.2% to $22.70. The
SPDR S&P Homebuilders
(XHB) - Get Report
climbed 9.2% to $23.37.
Financial ETFs were also higher for the week, following several M&A headlines out of the sector.
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
said Tuesday it will acquire the rest of Nikko Cordial, a Japan-based broker, for $4.6 billion. On Monday, Citigroup was part of a rally in the financial sector, despite acknowledging that third-quarter earnings should drop 60% from a year ago.
Another deal Tuesday saw
Commerce Bancorp
(CBH) - Get Report
, a New Jersey bank, acquired by Canada's
TD Bank
(TD) - Get Report
for $8.5 billion in stock and cash. Additionally,
Royal Bank of Canada
(RY) - Get Report
laid out plans to buy a Caribbean bank, RBTT Financial Group, for roughly $2.2 billion.
The
Ultra Financial ProShares
(UYG) - Get Report
advanced 9% to $62.55. The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers
(IAI) - Get Report
was higher by 5.6% to $54.92. The
KBW Bank
(KBE) - Get Report
ETF added 3.8% to $54.37.
Overseas-related ETFs were also among the top winners of the week as Asia markets were higher. Over the five sessions, Japan's Nikkei rose 1.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.5%.
The
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index
(FXI) - Get Report
advanced 6.4% at $191.60. The
SPDR S&P China
(GXC) - Get Report
added 5.1% to close at $98.67. The
PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China
(PGJ) - Get Report
gained 3.8% to $34.59.
The
United States Natural Gas
(UNG) - Get Report
ETF was one of the week's laggards, although still finished with slight gains. Natural gas prices slid 4.7% on Friday to $7.07 per million British thermal units, but still added 2.9% over the five sessions. The ETF rose 2.3% to $39.12.