News that banks are in better shape than previously believed kept shares rallying at the end of the holiday-shortened trading week. Exchange-traded funds based on the financial service sector and broad indexes had a strong finish. News that most of the 19 banks subject to the Treasury Department's so-called stress test will prove to be adequately capitalized in a worsening recession drew investors back to the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 246 to close at 8033 and finished its fifth straight up week. To see a complete rundown on Thursday's trading session see our market story.

Winners

Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH) topped unleveraged ETFs with a 20% gain for the week, closely followed by the SPDR KBW Bank fund (KBE), up 18.8% from its Monday opening price. Positive indicators for real estate, including the merger of Pulte Homes (PHM) and Centex (CTX), pushed shares of the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index fund (IYR) up 12.2% for the week.

Losers

Seasonal weakness and higher-than-expected inventories pressured the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG), which declined 3.8% for the week. Investor moves back to stocks caused gold prices to dip once again, leaving shares of the Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) down 1% for the week.

This Week's Industry News

Launching Pad
Vanguard on Monday launched an international small-cap ETF that tracks the FTSE Global Small Cap ex-U.S. Index. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF (VSS) has an expense ratio of 0.38%.

FaithShares, an Oklahoma City, Okla., company, filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a quintet of faith-based ETFs that it says will reflect the spiritual tenets of different Christian sects. The company proposed the FaithShares Baptist Values Fund, Catholic Values Fund, Christian Values Fund, Lutheran Values Fund and Methodist Values Fund, which will follow socially responsible investment principles.

Precious metals investors can anticipate being able to play palladium and platinum through exchange-traded funds. London-based ETF Securities filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a pair of funds structured like the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD). The metals shares would be the first ETF Securities funds on the U.S. market.

Data Point

Investors put $8 billion into exchange-traded funds in March reversing a $5.8 billion net outflow from February when investors fled the S&P 500 SPDRs (SPY) and the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) funds. The 752 ETFs listed in the United States had $484.6 billion in assets at the end of March, up from $456.3 billion in the previous month.

Next Week's Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls
Monday
Talbots

Tuesday
AmeriServe, Commerce Bancshares, CSX, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, W.W. Grainger

Wednesday
Abbott, AMR Corp., DataLink, Peabody Energy, Piper Jaffray, Universal Forest Products

Thursday
Biogen Idec, Briggs & Stratton, Charlotte Russe, Courier, Cypress Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor International, Gannett, Google, Harley Davidson, Nokia, Polaris Industries, Sherwin-Williams, Sunoco Products, Southwest Airlines, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Friday
BB&T, General Electric, Mattel

Economic Data
Monday
No major economic indicators.

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales
8:30 a.m. March Producer Price Index
8:30 a.m. March Producer Price Index, ex-food and energy
8:30 a.m. March Retail Sales
8:30 a.m. March Retail Sales, ex-autos
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales
10:00 a.m. Feb. Business Inventories
4:30 p.m. API Oil Industry Report

Wednesday
7:00 a.m. Mortgage Application Refinance Index
8:30 a.m. March Consumer Price Index
8:30 a.m. March Consumer Price Index
8:30 a.m. March Consumer Price Index, ex-food energy
8:30 a.m. April Empire State Fed Manufacturing Survey
9:00 a.m. Feb. Treasury International Capital
9:15 a.m. March Industrial Production
9:15 a.m. March Capacity Utilization
10:30 a.m. U.S. Energy Dept. Oil Inventories
1:00 p.m. April NAHB Housing Index
2:00 p.m. Federal Reserve Beige Book

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 a.m. March Housing Starts
10:00 a.m. April Philadelphia Fed Business Index
10:00 a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer

Friday
10:00 a.m. Mid-April Reuters/U. Michigan Sentiment Index

Quick Take

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