As Oil Rises, Energy ETFs Rally

Stocks ended Friday nearly flat for the week, as a computer glitch halted trading on about 200 names in a sideways session. Commodity prices retreated, knocking back key stocks, as consumer sentiment came in weak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28 points to close at 8799. For a complete rundown of Friday’s trading session see our market story. 

As crude closed above $72 a barrel this week, the United States Oil fund (USO) rallied 5.6%. Despite a Friday knock, the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining fund (XME) rose 5.2% for the week as commodity prices picked up world-wide.

Worries that semiconductor prices were outpacing demand knocked the chip-heavy iShares MSCI Taiwan fund (EWT) back 2.4% for the week. Despite a strong Friday rally, the Vanguard REIT fund (VNQ) finished the week down 2.0% on concerns about rising interest rates affecting commercial mortgage financing.

Earnings Note
Bidding for Barclays (BCS) appeared to end Friday with New York-based asset manager BlackRock (BLK) usurping private-equity fund CVC Capital Partners with a $13.5 billion offer for the Barclays Global Investors business. Barclay's previously signed a $4.4 billion deal for its iShares ETF business with CVC.

Launching Pad
WisdomTree announced plans for a trio of actively managed ETFs pending approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The WisdomTree Real Return fund, the WisdomTree Managed Futures fund and the WisdomTree Long-Short fund are designed to use hedge-fund-like investment strategies pinned to underlying instruments. The filing did not contain fee information.

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
Capstone Turbine Corporation, Casella Waste Systems, La-Z-Boy, Motorcar Parts of America, National Technical Systems, Synergetics USA

Tuesday
Adobe Systems, Best Buy Co., FactSet Research Systems, Smithfield Foods

Wednesday
FedEx, IHS

Thursday
Carnival, J. M. Smucker, Pier 1 Imports, Research In Motion, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, Winnebago

Friday
CarMax

Economic Data

Monday
8:30 a.m. June Empire State Fed Manufacturing Survey
9:00 a.m. April Treasury International Capital
1:00 p.m. April NAHB Housing Index

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales
8:30 a.m. May Housing Starts
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales
8:30 a.m. May Producer Price Index
8:30 a.m. May Producer Price Index, ex-food and energy
9:15 a.m. May Industrial Production
9:15 a.m. May Capacity Utilization
5:00 p.m. ABC/Washington Post Consumer Confidence

Wednesday
8:30 a.m. May Consumer Price Index
8:30 p.m. May Consumer Price Index, ex-food and energy
8:30 a.m. 1Q Current Account

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims
10:00 a.m. June Philadelphia Fed Business Index
10:00 a.m. May Conference Board Leading Indicators
10:00 a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer

Friday, June 19, 2009
No economic events scheduled

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