Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we saw the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Fund (PBW) hit a new high while the rest of the market pulled back. This week we have a mixed overall picture but continued strength in alternative energy:
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Breaking the recent pattern of "all-for-one" consistency that I noted lasted week, we finally have a mix of returns as "only" 57% of the ETFs on my list were higher this week. However, it could be argued that the "consistency" is still intact if you consider that most moves were minor. In that context, the uniformity comes as most groups were flat.
For the second week in a row, the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Fund (PBW) tops the list. The overall gain for the fund was fairly mild, at roughly 2% this week, but it does add to last week's new annual high. Last week I discussed how oil's persistence to remain in the headlines could keep the PBW in the spotlight, and I think that is still the case.
At the bottom of the list we find that the SPDR Homebuilders (XHB), iShares Silver Trust (SLV), and Biotech HOLDRS (BBH) struggled this week. In fact, they were the only groups to really push beyond the 2% threshold that kept the rest of my list in check.
In the middle of the media frenzy that is the iPhone, the fund that caught my eye this week is the Telecom HOLDRS (TTH). The TTH was near the top of the list and appears to be riding the Apple (AAPL) fervor via AT&T Inc (T). A check of the HOLDRS site shows that AT&T accounts for just over 50% of the TTH's weighting. In other words, the TTH doesn't offer a tremendously diverse weighting to the telecom sector as a whole; it is mostly about AT&T. Depending on your outlook for the iPhone, I guess that could be a positive or a negative.
Index performance this week
Indexes year to date
Charts: Google Finance
