Market Wrap-Up

Being Friday the 13th, no doubt investors were thinking the last trading session of the week could be a big dud. However, traders who had awaited all week for the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index report were happily surprised that benchmark increased 0.6% in May fast, but in line with expectations. Friday also saw a decline in oil prices as the U.S. dollar gained ground against some foreign currencies. That put a wrap on a week that showed promise if not for a 200-plus-point drop on Wednesday, precipitated by oil, inflation fears and the continuing saga surrounding financial stocks.

There were some rather historic maybe dubious is a better word events that happened during the last five trading sessions. The national average for a gallon of gasoline crossed the $4 mark, sending a signal it will be a long (and expensive) summer for the typical consumer. The soap opera between Microsoft and Yahoo seemed to finally come to a conclusion: Microsoft walked away Thursday from a potential merger. A partnership of some sort, though, may still be in the offing. Stay Tuned. And in an effort to quash speculation about its financial health, Lehman Brothers pushed out two top executives.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Friday up 166 points to 12,307. That benchmark was essentially flat for the week. Oil closed at $135 a barrel; gold at $872 an ounce.

Winners

A day after two of its highest-ranking executives stepped down, Lehman saw its shares dart 14%. It appeared traders were looking for a head or two to fall before they felt comfortable buying the shares. Lehman's upward move helped

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers

As for the week, the global food theme played out once again. But this week it was good ol' Mother Nature that was responsible for pushing prices to record highs. Torrential rain storms, flooding and tornadoes in the Midwest could possibly lead to a smaller harvest later this year. That scenario had investors buying iPath Dow Jones-AIG Agriculture Total Return, an exchange-traded note that invests in soybeans, corn, wheat, coffee, sugar and cotton. It gained 6% this week. Its sister fund, iPath Dow Jones-AIG Grains Total Return, an ETN that focuses just on soybeans, corn and wheat, climbed 7.4%.

Losers

The financial-services sector showed its split personality Friday. While big Wall Street firms were gaining, regional bank stocks were heading south.

Fifth Third

SPDR KBW Regional Banking ETF

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks fund

Those two funds were also some of the biggest losers of the week. But joining that group were solar and gold exchange traded funds. Solar ETFs tend to run in lock step with oil. So when the price of crude falls as it did this week so, too, does this sector. Market Vectors Solar Energy lost 6.9% this week. And with the dollar strengthening, traders unwound their inflation hedges by bailing on gold-related investments. Market Vectors Gold Miners decreased 7.8%.

The Week's Industry Headlines

Data Points

: State Street released its monthly snapshot of the ETF industry. As of May 31, there were 683 ETFs holding $612 billion. Assets grew by $17 billion and 23 new funds began trading during May. The S&P 500 SPDR is still the industry's largest offering with just over $77 billion, or about 13% of total ETF assets.

State Street and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, released the results of a survey exploring the impact of ETFs on the financial advisory business. Out of 840 advisors polled, 60% reported ETFs have "fundamentally changed" the way they construct their investment accounts. The top five reasons the respondents were using ETFs: low costs, liquidity, trading, tax efficiency and investment style. The disadvantages: 69% of the advisors cited untested indexes and too many choices.

Launching Pad: PowerShares announced the trading of the Nasdaq 100 BuyWrite Portfolio and Nasdaq Internet Portfolio exchange traded funds. The first fund follows a covered call strategy on the 100 largest nonfinancials trading on the Nasdaq, while the other one tracks the largest Internet-related companies listed on that same exchange. PowerShares also launched MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio which tracks the Nasdaq OMX Middle East North Africa index. That benchmark consists of companies in Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Arab Emirates.

ProShares was busy christening new funds this week. It launched the ProShares Short Oil & Gas and ProShares Short Financials ETFs. Those two funds allow investors to make bearish bets on their underlying indexes.

Next Week's Notebook

Earnings

Monday: Adobe, Dollar General, La-Z-Boy, Lehman Bros.

Tuesday: Best Buy, FactSet Research, Goldman Sachs

Wednesday: Carmax, Fedex, HIS, Lindsay Corp., Morgan Stanley

Thursday: Circuit City, Gerber Scientific, J.M. Smucker, Progress Software Friday: Winnebago

Economic Data

Monday: N.Y. Fed Manufacturing index (8:30 a.m.), International Capital Flows (9 a.m.), NAHB Housing Market index (1 p.m.)

Tuesday: Chain Store Sales (7:45 a.m.), 1st Quarter Current Account Gap (8:30 a.m.), May Producer Price index (8:30 a.m.), Housing Starts (8:30 a.m.), Retail Sales (8:55 a.m.), Industrial Production (9:15 a.m.), Capacity Utilization (9:15 a.m.), Consumer Confidence (5 p.m.)

Wednesday: Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Leading Indicators (10 a.m.), Philadelphia Fed Business index (10 a.m.), Business Barometer (10 a.m.)

Quick Take

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