Dion's Friday ETF Winners and Losers

ETFs tracking cotton, gold and silver were moving higher today.
By Don Dion ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Welcome to Don Dion's Daily ETF Winners and Losers. Be sure to stop by each day to get a feel of who's winning and who's losing when it comes to ETFs.

Winners

iPath Dow Jones UBS Cotton Total Return Subindex ETN

(BAL) - Get Report

4.2%

Cotton prices are rallying today, leading BAL to lock in its fifth consecutive day of gains. This week-long rally has helped BAL recover nearly all of the losses it suffered during its correction in mid-November.

Going forward, BAL and other single commodity ETNs such as

iPath Dow Jones UBS Sugar Total Return Subindex ETN

(SGG) - Get Report

will likely continue to be exciting to watch. However, conservative, buy-and-hold investors should stick to the sidelines because these funds tend to behave wildly.

Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF

(GDX) - Get Report

2.4%

Gold miners have benefited from broad market strength and feverish global investor demand who are trying to protect themselves from market volatility.

A number of other precious metals-related ETFs are heading higher today as well including

Global X Silver Miners ETF

(SIL) - Get Report

and

iShares Silver Trust

(SLV) - Get Report

.

On Friday, the physically based precious metal ETF industry welcomed a new member with the launch of

ETFS White Metal Trust

(WITE)

. This fund, which tracks a basket of silver, platinum and palladium, will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks. There is a strong chance that it will be quick to gain a following.

Losers

iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN

(VXX) - Get Report

-3.4%

A disappointing jobs report shook the markets heading at the close of the week. However, judging by the performance of the VIX-related ETFs, Friday's performance is doing little instill fear in hearts of investors.

VXX is once again trading at all time lows while

iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN

(VXZ) - Get Report

is getting knocked around as well.

Market Vectors India Small Cap Index ETF

(SCIF) - Get Report

-2.6%

Asian emerging markets are taking a shot across the bow on Friday, with SCIF leading the way lower.

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund

(FXI) - Get Report

and

iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index Fund

(EIDO) - Get Report

are performing poorly.

Vietnam is one of the few pockets of strength from this region of the globe, scoring 3.4% gains.

iPath Dow Jones UBS Natural Gas Total Return Subindex ETN

(GAZ) - Get Report

-0.6%

Due to the resilient premium underlying GAZ, the natural gas ETFs are trading out of lockstep with one another. Despite the fact that both GAZ and

United States Natural Gas Fund

(UNG) - Get Report

track a basket of futures, GAZ is taking a slight loss while UNG is in positive territory, gaining 0.5%. This premium has dropped significantly in recent weeks, going from a high of 26% to Friday's 6%. Still, investors should steer clear of this fund.

All prices as of 2:15 PM EST

Written by Don Dion in Williamstown, Mass.

At the time of publication, Dion Money Management owns Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF.

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.

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