Dion's Monday ETF Winners and Losers

The natural gas futures ETN was on a wild ride today.

Author:: Don Dion
Publish date:: Mar 19, 2012 2:58 PM EDT

The natural gas futures ETN was on a wild ride today.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Welcome to Don Dion's "ETF Winners and Losers." Be sure to stop by throughout the week to find out which ETFs are gaining or losing.

Winners

iPath Dow Jones UBS Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN

(GAZ) - Get Report

10.0%

Natural gas futures are heading higher, helping the

United States Natural Gas Fund

(UNG) - Get Report

power to its second day of gains. After starting the month off on a troubling note, shares of this battered energy ETF are exhibiting signs of stabilization. While tempting, investors should continue to monitor UNG from the sidelines. In the past, we have seen this fund exhibit signs of plateauing right before initiating another leg lower.

Although UNG is seeing some solid gains, GAZ is leading the way. It has been a wild day for this premium-laden ETN. The ETN was halted earlier in the trading session.

SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF

(XME) - Get Report

2.9%

With

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

announcing a dividend, the trading week got off to an exciting start. With all three major market indices sitting in positive territory, cyclical sectors are leading the way higher. XME, the

Market Vectors Steel ETF

(SLX) - Get Report

, and the

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index Fund

(IYG) - Get Report

are among the top movers.

iShares MSCI Spain Index Fund

(EWP) - Get Report

2.2%

EWP and other ETFs linked to the most troubled members of the European Union are heading higher at the start of the week. Thanks to this most recent three day rally, EWP has managed to surge back through its 50-day moving average and recapture levels seen prior to its early-March sell off. The

iShares MSCI Italy Index Fund

(EWI) - Get Report

is flirting with 2012 highs.

Losers

iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN

(VXX) - Get Report

-6.4%

The VIX benchmark index is heading higher, but the strength is failing to translate over into gains for the short term futures-tracking VXX ETN. Monday marks the instrument's third consecutive day of declines. This spell of weakness has nearly pushed VXX towards all-time lows.

Global X China Consumers ETF

(CHIQ) - Get Report

-1.9%

A concerning data report regarding China's housing market has injected a dose of uncertainty into CHIQ and other China-linked ETFs. Despite seeing another month of downward action, the nation's leaders are hesitant to back away from their restrictive policies. In recent days, premiere, Wen Jiabao has insisted that property prices are still unreasonable.

Market Vectors India Small Cap ETF

(SCIF) - Get Report

-1.3%

China is not the only BRIC nation in negative territory at the start of the week. On the contrary, India and Russia are also taking hits. The

iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index Fund

(ERUS) - Get Report

was off nearly 1% during early afternoon trading.

Brazil, meanwhile, is seeing some positive action. The

iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund

(EWZ) - Get Report

is up nearly 0.5%.

All prices as of 2:12 PM DST.