Notable ETFs Weekly Summary SKF, SSO, XME, IYR, XRT

Published on Saturday, 10 July 2010 14:05 Written by Christopher Lynn

  New York, Jul 10^th (TradersHuddle.com) – The US Stock Market logged its best week of the year by moving higher as economics jitters eased and earnings optimism increased. Market participants bid the stocks higher on speculation that good corporate earnings reports will help justify valuations and provide upside momentum to the overall market.

For the week, the blue chip index surged 5.28%, the S&P 500 index rallied 5.41% and the NASDAQ jumped 5.00%. Given the strong snap back rally, some of the notable short ETFs suffered tremendously during the week, for example the ProShares UltraShort Financials ETF (NYSE:SKF) tumbled during the week to close the week in the $20 area down more than $4 points since Monday. UltraShort Financials follows the double inverse of the XLF, which is still facing some resistance but continues to digest it as the sector crawls higher.

Another popular ETF that traders used to play the market bottom, as the S&P 500 was trading near the 1,000 mark is the SSO or ProShares Ultra S&P500 (NYSE:SSO), which follows the S&P 500 on a 2x1 basis. The SSO saw its price appreciate from the low $31s early in the week to close just above $35 a good one week gain, as the S&P 500 closed very close to a key technical area of 1,085 as described by traders on the floor.

The Metals and Mining sector via the Spider S&P Metals and Mining ETF (NYSE:XME) outperformed the overall market during the week, as it appreciated close to 10% versus its previous weekly close. The metals and mining sector had a very strong week, leaving the price action very close to the $50 psychological area, which happens to coincide with a convergence of moving averages as the 200 day and 50 day are set around the same vicinity.

The IShares DJ US Real State Index ETF (NYSE:IYR) also saw a strong snap back in the week, after its breakdown below the 200 day moving average at the close last week. The real state ETF also outperformed the S&P 500 as it traded higher more than 7.5% this week.

The Spider S&P Retail ETF (NYSE:XRT) underperformed the broad market index, as it only traded higher by 3.2% in the week. The sector broke down significant macro support at the $37 area last week, and had a hard time recovering from breakdown below the 200 day moving average. Retail outperformed during the February to April rally, however this time is being haunted by bad economic headlines with unemployment looming.