ETFs Falter As Rally Slows

The markets had a lackluster week shedding about 100 points from last week. Stocks faltered broadly in light trading on Friday, though technology stocks fared well enough to boost the Nasdaq thanks in part to a 15.6% gain for Palm (PALM). Oil prices receded settling below $70 as futures also pulled back. Consumer sentiment for June climbed to 70.8 after an upward revision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 34 point to close at 8438. To see a complete rundown on Friday’s trading session see our market story. 

Gold found favor among investors dismayed by the sideways stock market sending shares of the Market Vectors Gold Miners fund (GDX) 5.9% higher for the week. Expectations that China may take the lead role in reviving global growth pushed shares of the Shares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index fund (FXI) up 4.9%.

Lower energy prices knocked shares of the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production fund (XOP) back 3% for the week. Bank stocks remained at the volatile core of the stock market, and the SPDR KBW Regional Banking fund (KRE) shed 1.8%.

New commodity funds planned
U.S. Commodity Funds wants Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval of its latest proposed commodity fund, which will invest in futures contracts for natural gas at Louisiana's Henry Hub. The company operates the U.S. Oil fund (USO), the U.S. Gasoline fund (UGA), the U.S. Natural Gas fund (UNG) and the U.S. 12-Month Oil fund (USL). The proposed fund will be based on a full basket of the next 12 months of futures contracts for natural gas. The U.S. Natural Gas fund holds only the next month's contract.

The company also wants permission to launch a fund that shorts prices for light sweet crude oil, which would trade as the U.S. Short Oil fund (USSO).

Triple-leveraged S&P funds in the works
ProShares, a major provider of leveraged exchange-traded funds, filed a request with the SEC to launch a triple-leveraged fund based on the daily returns of the S&P 500 stock index. It also wants to launch a fund of equal leverage to short the index. Both funds would have expense ratios of 0.95%.

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
Apollo Group, H&R Block

Tuesday
Exfo Electro-Optical Engineering, Investors Real Estate, Momentum Advanced Solutions, Park Electrochemical, Schnitzer Steel Industries, Sealy

Wednesday
Constellation Brands, General Mills, Lindsay Corporation, UniFirst

Thursday
Acuity Brands, Methode Electronics, MSC Industrial Direct

Friday
No earnings releases scheduled

Economic Data

Monday
10:30 a.m. June Dallas Fed Mfg. Production Index

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales Index for June 27
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales Index for June 27
9:00 a.m. April S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index
9:45 a.m. June Chicago PMI
10:00 a.m. June Conference Board Consumer Confidence
5:00 p.m. ABC/Washington Post Consumer Confidence for June 27

Wednesday
7:00 a.m. June 26 Mortgage Refinance Application Survey
8:15 a.m. June ADP National Employment Report
10:00 a.m. June ISM Mfg Index
10:00 a.m. June Construction Spending
10:00 a.m. May Pending Home Sales
10:30 a.m. Jun 26 U.S. Energy Dept. Oil Inventories

Thursday
8:30 a.m. June 27 Weekly Jobless Claims
8:30 a.m. June Non-Farm Payrolls
8:30 a.m. June Unemployment Rate
10:00 a.m. June 20 DJ-BTMU Economic Barometer
10:00 a.m. May Factory Orders
10:30 a.m. June 19 EIA Natural Gas Inventories
4:30 p.m. June 22 Money Supply

Friday
No economic events are scheduled for today.

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