ETFs Post Mild Gains During Mixed Session

Swine flu scares world-wide didn't do much to a regrouping stock market, which stayed nearly flat on a mix of economic and earnings news. The threat of a global pandemic remains a serious concern, but closer to home, the Case-Shiller Index's news that house prices didn't drop quite so fast in February as they did in January was embraced as part of a bottoming process. Also, a measure of consumer confidence rose during April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded in a narrow band Tuesday, finishing down a slim eight points at 8016. For a complete rundown of Tuesday’s trading session see our market story. 

Natural gas prices rose slightly, making it an up day for the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG). It rose 2.2%. General interest in flu cures and drugs under development gave the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology fund (IBB) a mild lift of 2.2%.

Gold prices dipped below $900 an ounce to close at $894, sinking the Market Vectors Gold Miners fund (GDX) 3.6%. Intimations that Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) could head the list of banks on the wrong end of the Treasury Department's stress tests dinged the SPDR Financial Select Sector fund (XLF) 3.1%.

Earnings and Conference Calls
Acer, Aflac, Agnico-Eagle Mines, Akamai Technologies, Baker Hughes, Ballard Power Systems, Burker King, CB Richard Ellis, China National Offshore Oil Corp., Digital River, Drucgstore.com, First Solar, General Dynamics, Genessee & Wyoming, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Jones Apparel Group, Moody's, NutriSystem, ProLogis, Qwest Communications, Rockwell Automation, Sanofi Aventis, Siemens, Silicon Laboratories, Starbucks, Textron, Time Warner, Tyco Electronics, Visa, Wyndham Worldwide, Wyeth

Economic Data
7:00 a.m. Mortgage Applications Refinance Index
8:30 a.m. 1Q Advance GDP
10:30 a.m. U.S. Energy Dept. Oil Inventories
2:15 p.m. April FOMC Interest Rate Decision

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