Investing Ideas

After Strong Week, ETFs Finish Flat Friday (Daily ETF Wrap-Up)

via SmartMoney.com by letters@smartmoney.com (Dan Burrows) on 7/23/09

Market Wrap Up

Exchange-traded funds finished Friday's session flat but posted strong gains for the week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke the psychologically key 9000 level for the first time since early January.

Weaker-than-expected results from American Express (AXP), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN) after the close Thursday led to some profit taking Friday, especially among red-hot technology stocks. However, better-than-expected news from Apple (AAPL), Caterpillar (CAT) and Starbucks (SBUX), among others, as well as a third straight monthly increase in existing homes sales, allowed equities to gain 4% on the week.

At market close the Dow added 24 to finish at 9093, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 8 to 1966. The S&P 500 gained 3 to 979. For a detailed rundown on Friday's trading session see our market story.

Winners

Oil prices finished the week above $68 a barrel, boosting shares of energy and oil ETFs. United States Oil Fund (USO) jumped 5.8% for the week, while Oil Service HOLDRS Trust (OIH) gained 6.6%.

Losers

With the Dow above 9000 and the S&P 500 enjoying its best two-week gain since March, it was mostly only leveraged ETFs that suffered significant losses on the week. However, a drop in the price of gold Friday -- just one day after the precious metal hit a six-week high -- didn't do much for gold ETFs. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) and iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) each finished the week with a fractional loss.

This Week's Industry News

Emerging Global Advisors announced the launch of the Emerging Global Shares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Fund (EEG) which seeks to track the performance of the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Composite 100 Index. Fifteen emerging markets countries are represented in the index, giving investors a pure play on stocks in those economies, the company said. The ETF will charge an annual expense ratio of 0.75%.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority softened its stance on leveraged ETFs, saying in a podcast that these investment vehicles "can be appropriate if recommended as part of a sophisticated trading strategy that will be closely monitored by a financial professional. At times, this trading strategy might require a leveraged or inverse ETF to be held longer than one day." In June FINRA issued a warning to advisors about holding leveraged ETFs for longer than one day, as compounding causes them to stray from their underlying benchmarks over time.

Next Week's Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
A. H. Belo, Ace Limited, Alberto Culver, American River Bankshares, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cal-Maine Foods, Curtiss-Wright, Franklin Electric, GulfMark Offshore, Honeywell, International Coal Group, Owens & Minor, RadioShack, Rent-a-Center, Sohu.com, Trident Microsystems, Zoran

Tuesday
A.M. Castle, Advent Software, AMB Property, Amedisys, BE Aerospace, BP, Celanese, Ceradyne, Check Point Software Technologies, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Coach, Columbia Sportswear, Coventry Health Care, Deutsche Bank, Energizer, Fresh Del Monte Produce, Heidrick and Struggles, Landec, LCA-Vision, Luxottica, McKesson, Nash Finch, National Oilwell Varco, Norfolk Southern Corp., Office Depot, Panera Bread, Patriot Coal, PepsiAmericas, Questar, RenaissanceRe Holdings, Rockwell Automation, SeaBright Insurance Holdings, Silicon Storage Technology, Supervalu, Teva Pharmaceutical, Textron, Interpublic Group, McGraw Hill, Unisys, U.S. Steel, Valero Energy, Viacom, Western Digital, XL Capital

Wednesday
Acadia Realty Trust, Adolor, Advantest, Aetna, Aflac, Akamai, ArcelorMittal, Assurant, Banco Santander, BorgWarner, Brookfield Homes, Brookfield Properties, Cabot, Cadbury, CB Richard Ellis, CBIZ, Coca-Cola Enterprises, ConocoPhillips, Covance, Daimler, Equity One, Equity Residential, Express Scripts, FBR Capital Markets, Fiserv, FMC, General Dynamics, Hanesbrands, Hess, Hospira, Jones Apparel, Lazard, Lincoln National, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, MeadWestvaco, Medco Health Solutions, Meredith, Moody's, Penske Automotive Group, Portfolio Recovery Associates, Qwest, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Sanofi-Aventis, SAP, Sprint Nextel, Symantec, Taser, Teradyne, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Timberland, Thomas Weisel Partners, Time Warner Cabel, Time Warner, Trico Marine Services, Tyco Electronics, United Rentals, Visa, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Wyndham Worldwide

Thursday
Alcatel-Lucent, AmeriSourceBergen, Aon, Apache, Arch Chemicals, AstraZeneca, Automatic Data Processing, Avery Dennison, Avon, Barrick Gold, Becton, Dickinson, Brunswick Corp., Cabela's, Cablevision, Canadian Pacific Railway, CEC Entertainment, Cepheid, CGGVeritas, CH Energy Group, Charles & Colvard, Cigna, Colgate-Palmolive, Covidien, Cummins, Dolby Laboratories, Double Eagle Petroleum and Mining, Dow Chemical, Duke Realty, Eastman Kodak, Evergreen Solar, Expedia, ExxonMobil, First Solar, Franklin Resources, Genworth Financial, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Helmerich & Payne, Horizon Financial, Ingram Micro, International Paper, Iron Mountain, Kellogg, Kimco Realty, Las Vegas Sands, Level 3 Communications, MarineMax, MasterCard, McAfee, MetLife, Monster Worldwide, Morningstar, Motorola, Mylan, Newell Rubbermaid, Noble Energy, NTT DoCoMo, NYSE Euronext, OfficeMax, Olympic Steel, Oppenheimer Holdings, Oshkosh Corp., Palomar Medical Technologies, Parker Hannifin, PerkinElmer, Pitney Bowes, Provident Financial Holdings, RealNetworks, Reed Elsevier, Regal Entertainment, Republic Airways, Republic Services, Revlon, Rockwell Collins, Sony, SourceForge, Taleo, Taylor Capital, Tennant, The Brinks Company, The Hanover Insurance Group, The Travelers Cos., Tyco International, Varian Semiconductor, Walt Disney, Waste Management, WisdomTree Investments, Wynn Resorts

Friday
Allergan, Anglogold Ashanti, AutoNation, Belo, Calpine, Chevron, Constellation Energy, DryShips, Eldorado Gold, HMS Holdings, ITT, Johnson Outdoors, Lafarge, MDC Holdings, NorthStar Realty Finance, Snap-on Inc., Washington Post Co., Weyerhaeuser

Economic Data

Monday
10:00 a.m. New Home sales

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC-Goldman Store Sales
9:00 a.m. Consumer Confidence
9:00 a.m. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index

Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Durable Orders
10:30 a.m. Crude Inventories
2:00 p.m. Beige Book

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims
10:30 a.m. EIA Natural Gas Report

Friday
8:30 a.m. GDP
9:45 a.m. Chicago PMI

A look at how the industry's most popular ETFs did on Friday:

10 Largest ETFs

Symbol	Current Price	Net Assets	Volume	Expense Ratio	52 Week High	3 Year Return
SPY	97.86	63,739	153,678,812	0.090	130.7	-5.63
EFA	49.26	29,392	15,432,526	0.340	67.37	-5.11
EEM	35.4	28,449	49,253,525	0.720	43.16	7.33
GLD	93.41	NA	4,732,231	0.420	97.24	13.95
IVV	98.39	18,337	8,785,076	0.090	130.92	-5.61
QQQQ	39.05	14,025	110,144,969	0.200	48.32	NA
IWF	43.67	9,479	2,402,457	0.200	55.45	-2.06
SHY	83.7	7,044	969,766	0.150	85	5.39
VTI	49.39	10,258	1,639,727	0.070	65.56	-4.75
IWD	50.44	7,068	2,337,692	0.200	70.64	-9.07