Tuesday's ETF Winners & Losers
Exchange-traded funds tracking the homebuilding sector were among the worst performers of Tuesday's session, following negative earnings and existing-home sales news.
Before the session began,
Lennar
(LEN) - Get Report
posted a third-quarter loss of $513.9 million, or $3.25 a share, reversing a year-ago profit due to write-offs and adjustments. Revenue plummeted to $2.34 billion from $4.18 billion, falling short of consensus estimates.
Shortly after, the National Association of Realtors said that existing-home sales fell 4.3% in August to 5.5 million annualized units, as expected. Existing home sales are now at their lowest level in five years, while inventories of single-family homes are at their highest in 18 years.
The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction
(ITB) - Get Report
eased 78 cents, or 3.7%, to $20.45. The
SPDR S&P Homebuilders
(XHB) - Get Report
lost 57 cents, or 2.6%, to $21.52.
Bundled securities following retailers were also under pressure. Home improvement retailer
Lowe's
(LOW) - Get Report
issued a profit warning after the last close, saying it now expects fiscal-year earnings at the low end or slightly below its previous guidance, due to regional drought conditions hurting its outdoor offerings.
Target
(TGT) - Get Report
, meanwhile, reduced its forecast for September same-store sales growth to a range between 1.5% and 2.5%, compared with the previous forecast of 4% to 6%. The stock dropped $2.36, or 3.7%, to $61.94.
The
SPDR S&P Retail
(XRT) - Get Report
was losing 94 cents, or 2.4%, to $38.34. The
Retail HOLDRs
(RTH) - Get Report
was down $2.18, or 2.2%, to $99.21. The
PowerShares Dynamic Retail
(PMR) - Get Report
eased 28 cents, or 1.6%, to $17.79.
Oil-related ETFs were also declining as crude oil slid $1.47 to $79.48 a barrel. The
Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares
(DIG) - Get Report
shed $2.64, or 2.4%, to $109.30. The
Energy Select Sector SPDR
(XLE) - Get Report
was off $1.34, or 1.8%, to $74.22. The
Oil Service HOLDRs
(OIH) - Get Report
was down $3.13, or 1.6%, to $190.19.
On the other hand, technology-related ETFs were among the few winners.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
was one of the big individual winners after
The Wall Street Journal
reported that the software giant is considering buying a stake in the social-networking site Facebook for $300 million to $500 million.
The software giant is also celebrating the launch of the video game
Halo 3
, a title that's expected to boost sales of the Xbox 360 console.
The
Ultra Technology ProShares
(ROM) - Get Report
was up $1.12, or 1.3%, at $84.99. The
iShares S&P GSTI Software
(IGV) - Get Report
was adding 51 cents, or 1.1%, to $49.12. The
Technology Select Sector SPDR
(XLK) - Get Report
rose 23 cents, or 0.9%, to $26.88.