This Week's ETF Winners & Losers
Exchange-traded funds tracking financial stocks were among the best performers this week as traders hoped -- again -- that banks are finally close to getting rid of the last of their soured assets.
The
Ultra Financials ProShares
(UYG) - Get Report
soared 12.3% for the week. The
Financial Select Sector SPDR
(XLF) - Get Report
,
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services
(IYG) - Get Report
and
Vanguard Financials
(VFH) - Get Report
ETF added 5.9% or more.
Earlier this week, both
UBS
(UBS) - Get Report
and
Deutsche Bank
(DB) - Get Report
announced they'll be taking billions more in writedowns in the first quarter, leading traders to surmise that financial firms are making a final push to get rid of those bad assets and move past the subprime calamity that has dragged down the market. Also cheering traders was news that UBS and
Lehman Brothers
(LEH)
have set plans to raise more capital.
Also doing well this week were commodities ETFs.
PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund
(DBC) - Get Report
and
iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust
(GSG) - Get Report
rose 1.1% and 2.1%, respectively.
With crude prices rising, the
Oil Services HOLDRs
(OIH) - Get Report
,
PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services
(PXJ) - Get Report
and
Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares
(DIG) - Get Report
advanced 1.4% or more.
Bundled securities tracking gold-related stocks, however, took a collective slide as gold futures lost ground for the week. Over the past five trading sessions,
PowerShares DB Gold
(DGL) - Get Report
lost 2%, the
iShares COMEX Gold Trust
(IAU) - Get Report
shed 1.8%, and the
streetTRACKS Gold Shares
(GLD) - Get Report
was off 1.8%.