Weakness in the financial and energy sectors kept exchange-traded funds mostly flat Wednesday following disappointing earnings from a couple of big-name banks and a sharp decline in energy prices.

Morgan Stanley (MS) posted a disappointing loss of $1.37 a share on debt-related credit spreads and its exit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. In other sectors, Pfizer (PFE), a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, met earnings expectations after adjusting for special items, but posted revenue and profit declines. Fellow Dow component Boeing (BA) reported a 22% increase in earnings per share on a small uptick in revenue.

By market close the Dow fell 35 to finish at 8881, while the Nasdaq Composite added 10 to 1926. The S&P 500 was essentially unchanged at 954. For a detailed rundown on Wednesday's trading session see our market story.

Winners

Better-than-expected quarterly results from Starbucks (SBUX) and Apple (AAPL) gave a lift to consumer discretionary stocks. That helped Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) gain 1%, while Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) rose 0.8%.

Losers

The price of crude oil fell 21 cents to $65.40 a barrel Wednesday after U.S. data showed that inventories continued to rise last week amid weak demand. That hurt energy and oil ETFs. Oil Service HOLDRS Trust (OIL) dropped 1.2%, while Vanguard Energy Index Fund (VDE) declined nearly 1%.

Wednesday's Industry Headlines

Launching Pad
Emerging Global Advisors announced the launch of the Emerging Global Shares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Fund (EEG), which seeks to track the performance of the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Composite 100 Index. Fifteen emerging markets countries are represented in the index, giving investors a pure play on stocks in those economies, the company said. The ETF will charge an annual expense ratio of 0.75%.

Thursday's Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls
3M, ABB, Airgas, Alaska Airlines, Amazon.com, American Express, Ameriprise Financial, AT&T, Ball Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Broadcom, Capital One Financial, Cheesecake Factory, Chubb, CIT Group, Compuware, Eastman Chemical, Fifth Third Bancorp, Freescale Semiconductor, Goodrich, Healthways, Hercules Offshore, Hershey, Huntington Bancshares, Immucor, Invesco, Janus Capital Group, JetBlue Airways, L-3 Communications Holdings, Manpower, McDonald's, NCR, Netflix, Newmont Mining, Nucor, Occidental Petroleum, Philip Morris International, PNC Financial Services, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, ProLogis, Provident Financial Services, Raytheon, Ryder System, Safeway, Synovus Financial, Union Pacific, United Parcel Service, W.R. Grace, Wyeth, Xerox

Economic Data
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims for July 18
10:00 a.m. Existing Home Sales
10:30 a.m. EIA Natural Gas Report

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