Dion's Weekly ETF Winners and Losers
Winners
S&P North American Technology-Semiconductors Index Fund
(IGW)
+5%
Alcoa's
(AA) - Get Report
earnings report started off the earnings season on a tepid note, but clearer skies quickly prevailed with
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
turning in excellent earnings. Fellow chipmaker
AMD
(AMD) - Get Report
followed Intel with its own strong earnings report. Both companies helped power IGW to a place among this week's winners.
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Transportation Index Fund
(IYT) - Get Report
+3.2%
Another strong earnings play this week was IYT. Three of the fund's holdings:
JB Hunt
(JBHT) - Get Report
,
United Parcel Service
(UPS) - Get Report
and
CSX
(CSX) - Get Report
(CSX), turned in strong numbers as demand for transportation picks up amid the global economic recovery.
> > Bull or Bear? Vote in Our Poll
Looking to the near future investors should keep an eye on this fund as top railroad holding
Union Pacific
(UNP) - Get Report
is scheduled to report its earnings on April 22.
Losers
iShares MSCI Thailand Investable Market Index Fund
(THD) - Get Report
-8.1%
For the second week in a row, iShares Thailand earned rank as a top loser within the ETF realm. The nation's markets faltered this week due to the ongoing tensions between red shirt protestors and the nation's government, which recently took a violent turn.
Investors should continue to steer clear of Thailand until this unrest is resolved.
Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate ETF
(TAO) - Get Report
-5.7%
Strong actions taken by China's State Council helped punish the nation's real estate industry and TAO at the close of this week.
In hopes of cooling down the appreciating mainland property market, the committee commanded the nation's banks to raise mortgage rates on second homes as well as down payment requirements for first- and second-home buyers.
Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF
(GDX) - Get Report
-4.4%
A consistently strong market coupled with a strengthening dollar has pushed gold and top gold miners lower this week. Top holding
Barrick Gold
(ABX)
fell 5.3% this week and helped drag the fund lower. The large cap GDX fell more than
Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners
(GDXJ) - Get Report
, which lost 3.7% for the week.
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund
(FXI) - Get Report
-5.1%
Nearly half of FXI's portfolio is dedicated to China's financial system. This week, weakness in this industry pressured the fund, causing it to take one of the biggest hits in the ETF industry.
This sector should continue to struggle as the banks raise capital to meet the government's requirements for financial strength. In order to do this, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China estimates that China's four largest publicly traded banks will need to raise $70 billion.
-- Written by Don Dion in Williamstown, Mass.
At the time of publication, Dion was not long in any equities mentioned.
Don Dion is president and founder of
, a fee-based investment advisory firm to affluent individuals, families and nonprofit organizations, where he is responsible for setting investment policy, creating custom portfolios and overseeing the performance of client accounts. Founded in 1996 and based in Williamstown, Mass., Dion Money Management manages assets for clients in 49 states and 11 countries. Dion is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts and Maine and has more than 25 years' experience working in the financial markets, having founded and run two publicly traded companies before establishing Dion Money Management.
Dion also is publisher of the Fidelity Independent Adviser family of newsletters, which provides to a broad range of investors his commentary on the financial markets, with a specific emphasis on mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. With more than 100,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 29 other countries, Fidelity Independent Adviser publishes six monthly newsletters and three weekly newsletters. Its flagship publication, Fidelity Independent Adviser, has been published monthly for 11 years and reaches 40,000 subscribers.
