Financial ETFs Gain as Market Stalls Out

Stocks rallied at the end of Monday's trading session to finish flat after sinking as much as 126 points. Tech names weighed on trading, especially Apple (AAPL) and Palm (PALM). Palm recently unveiled its new Pre smartphone to critical acclaim, but there are concerns about supplies and applications. Meanwhile, financial stocks ginned up the major indexes late in the day after MetLife (MET) received an upgrade, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) climbed 2.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose one point to close at 8764. For a complete rundown of Monday’s trading session see our market story.

The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks Index fund (IAT) held up against the selloff of the early trading session and finished up 1.1%. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders fund (XHB) increased 1.0% for the day.

The WisdomTree India Earnings fund (EPI) dropped back 4.5% after some profit-taking in the wake of steady buying following the pro-business, Congress party-led coalition's election. A drop by steel maker Arcelor Mittal (MT) also affected Indian markets. The United States Natural Gas fund (UNG) took a 3.1% slide as gas prices declined.

Data Point
Bidding for Barclays (BCS) and its iShares exchange-traded funds business heated up, according to weekend reports from the British financial press. Asset manager BlackRock (BLK) is reportedly closing in on a deal that could be worth as much as $13 billion for Barclays Global Investors. The U.K. reports were backed up by Pensions & Investments magazine, a U.S. publication that broke the news Friday afternoon. Barclay's signed a $4.4 billion deal for its iShares ETF business with private-equity fund CVC Capital Partners, but had a 30-day window in which to seek other qualified buyers.

Launching Pad
WisdomTree plans to launch 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
CRA International, Korn Ferry International, Movado, Pep Boys, Piedmont Natural Gas,
Shuffle Master, Sina, Talbots

Economic Data
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales
10:00 a.m. April Wholesale Trade
5:00 p.m. ABC/Washington Post Consumer Confidence

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