This Week's ETF Winners & Losers
Exchange-traded funds related to financials were the worst performers of a losing week following several disappointing quarterly reports.
Over the course of the week,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
,
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
,
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
and
Washington Mutual
(WM) - Get Report
, among others, were out with lackluster earnings reports. Each fell by at least 8%.
The
Ultra Financial ProShares
(UYG) - Get Report
ETF tumbled 14.3% to $52.10. The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers
(IAI) - Get Report
ETF was lower by 6.9% to $51.32. The
KBW Bank
(KBE) - Get Report
ETF lost 6.8% to $49.54.
ETFs tracking homebuilders were also among the worst decliners as concern from the
Federal Reserve
, weak economic data and an earnings warning joined to sink the sector. Late Monday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was out with negative comments, saying that "the further contraction in housing is likely to be a significant drag on growth in the current quarter and through early next year."
On Tuesday, homebuilder
D.R. Horton
(DHI) - Get Report
said that fourth-quarter net sales were nearly halved to $1.3 billion from a year ago due to cautious buyers and a tough housing environment.
The news got worse on Wednesday, when the Census Bureau said that housing starts plummeted 10.2% last month to a 14-year low. Building permits tumbled 7.3% to 1.22 million, also below expectations.
For the week, the
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction
(ITB) - Get Report
ETF sank 10.7% to $19.40. The
SPDR S&P Homebuilders
(XHB) - Get Report
ETF shed 9.9% to $20.72.
Retail-related ETFs also finished with losses for the week. Among individual names,
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
,
Lowe's
(LOW) - Get Report
,
Home Depot
(HD) - Get Report
,
Target
(TGT) - Get Report
and
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Report
were all lower by 2.8% or more.
The
SPDR S&P Retail
(XRT) - Get Report
ETF ended down 7.8% to $37.38. The
PowerShares Dynamic Retail
(PMR) - Get Report
ETF eased 6.3% to $17.11. The
Retail HOLDRs
(RTH) - Get Report
fell 5.5% to $96.48.
On the other hand, energy-related ETFs were among few winners as crude set multiple records during the week. The November benchmark contract broke the $90-a-barrel level, adding 5.9% over the course of the week to close at $88.60.
The
United States Oil
(USO) - Get Report
added 4.9% to $67.14. The
iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index
(OIL) - Get Report
ETF finished up 4.9% to $49.71.