This Week's ETF Winners & Losers
Financial-sector exchange-traded funds were among the worst losers of a holiday-shortened week on Wall Street as several downgrades and fears of more writedowns stoked additional credit fears.
The
Ultra Financial ProShares
(UYG) - Get Report
ETF lost 6.7% to $42. The
Financial Select Sector SPDR
(XLF) - Get Report
ETF fell 3.8% to $29.35. The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers
(IAI) - Get Report
ETF was lower by 2.2% to $48.83.
Stocks in the group were hit hard Monday after Goldman Sachs downgraded
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
to sell from neutral on worries about its collateralized debt obligation writedowns. Goldman also cut its price targets on a number of names in the sector, including
Merrill Lynch
(MER)
,
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Report
and
E*Trade
(ETFC) - Get Report
.
Also,
Swiss Re
said it will write down $1.1 billion because of its exposure to the U.S. subprime mess, as well as asset-backed CDOs.
Freddie Mac
(FRE)
said Tuesday it may have to raise new funds and chop its dividend in half after posting a $2 billion loss for the third quarter. Freddie, as well as counterpart
Fannie Mae
(FNM)
and
Countrywide Financial
(CFC)
, lost significant ground over the course of the week.
ETFs tracking homebuilders were also weak. The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction
(ITB) - Get Report
ETF sank 9.4% to $16.96. The
SPDR S&P Homebuilders
(XHB) - Get Report
ETF shed 8.5% to $18.33.
On the other hand, energy-related ETFs were among the best performers as crude topped $99 a barrel for the first time.
The
iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index
(OIL) - Get Report
advanced 4.4% to $56.86. The
United States Oil
(USO) - Get Report
added 3.9% to $76.76. The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment Index
(IEZ) - Get Report
was up 1.6% to $60.84.
Bundled securities tracking gold futures were also higher for the week. The
iShares Comex Gold Trust
(IAU) - Get Report
ETF rose 4.9% to $81.50. The
streetTRACKS Gold Shares
(GLD) - Get Report
ETF finished up 4.7% to $81.39.
