Market Wrap-Up

For most of this week it has been hard to make sense of the stock market's direction. Thursday's trading session certainly fit that trend.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two beleaguered mortgage giants, took big hits today as investors fretted over the future of the two companies. A former Federal Reserve official warned the companies may need government help. But in Capitol Hill testimony Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pushed for possible regulatory reform of the financial system while adding, "For market discipline to effectively constrain risk, financial institutions must be allowed to fail." Those comments certainly didn't lend any clarity to the situation.

Meanwhile, Dow Chemical agreed to buy Rohm & Hass for $18.8 billion (including debt) and General Electric is evidently looking to spin off its industrial and consumer group. In a surprising move, aluminum rallied Thursday, taking the shares of Alcoa with it. Alcoa, which reported decent earnings Tuesday, saw its share price soar over 9% today. Bullish sentiments around oil returned, too, pushing the per-barrel price $5 higher to $141.

There was also a mixed bag of economic news to contend with. Initial jobless claims fell 14% from last week. However, home foreclosures jumped 53%.

All that news had the market swinging all session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1% before losing that entire gain. In the last hour of trading, though, the benchmark managed to move back into positive territory, closing ahead 82 points to 11,229.

Winners

Aluminum prices jumped Thursday after producers in China agreed to cut output by as much as 10%. That curtailment should end concerns about an abundance of inventories. The

iPath Dow Jones-AIG Aluminum exchange traded note

Losers

The speculation swirling around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dragged down a wide range of financial and housing-oriented exchange traded funds. The

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers fund

SPDR S&P Homebuilders

Friday's Notebook

Earnings

Fastenal, General Electric, Rockwell Collins

Economic Data
Trade Balance (8:30 a.m.), Import Prices (8:30 a.m.), Federal Budget (2 p.m.)

Quick Take

A look at how the industry's most popular ETFs did on Thursday.