Tuesday's ETF Winners & Losers
Housing-related exchange-traded funds were among the top performers of Tuesday's session, following positive news in a government report.
The U.S. Census Bureau said housing starts unexpectedly rose 0.8% in March to 1.518 million annualized units. Building permits last month also rose 0.8%, to 1.544 million. On average, economists expected March starts to total 1.50 million, and for permits to dip to a 1.51 million annual pace.
The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction
(ITB) - Get Report
ETF was higher by 53 cents, or 1.5%, at $35.60. The
SPDR Homebuilders
(XHB) - Get Report
ETF was up 39 cents, or 1.2%, to $33.73.
Also gaining ground was the
HealthShares Emerging Cancer
(HHJ)
ETF, aided by gains of 3.1% or more in
Dendreon
(DNDN)
,
Biomira
(BIOM)
, and
Cell Genesys
(CEGE)
. The ETF was recently adding 29 cents, or 1.1%, to $27.18.
Among losers, the
B2B Internet HOLDRs
(BHH)
ETF sank nearly 1%, as holding
CheckFree
(CKFR)
slumped 1.8%. The ETF was off 2 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.13.
Bundled securities tracking the energy sector were also among the losers of the day, despite a gain in oil prices. The front-month May crude contract was recently adding 41 cents to $64.02 a barrel.
The
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment Index
(IEZ) - Get Report
ETF was off 1.2% to $54.44. The
PowerShares DB Oil
(DBO) - Get Report
ETF was losing 1.1% to $26.15. The
Oil Services HOLDRs
(OIH) - Get Report
ETF eased 0.8% to $154.27. The
iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Index
(OIL) - Get Report
was giving back 0.7% to $37.20.