Market Wrap-Up

The country got a new president, but investors got more of the same in a turbulent week for the markets, which remained hobbled by the financial-services sector s ongoing woes.

Barack Obama swept into the Oval Office amid much ceremony. Meanwhile, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain was pushed from his lavishly refurbished chambers at Bank of America (BAC) in the wake of the forced merger between the two firms. The drama playing out in the financial sector extended overseas. In the United Kingdom, bank stocks like Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) plunged as investors feared an inexorable path to full nationalization. That in turn gutted U.S. insurer Aflac (AFL) on fears that its portfolio had too much exposure to the faltering sector.

In tech, Apple (AAPL) and IBM (IBM) posted strong earnings despite the grim recessionary economy. Microsoft (MSFT), however, unleashed its first ever major round of layoffs and pulled its guidance for the rest of the fiscal year, citing uncertain prospects.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below the 8,000 level three times this week. But as the weekend neared it managed to close at 8,077 Friday. That represented a 2.5% weekly decline.

Oil closed Friday at $45.83, climbing 28% for the week as planned production cuts by OPEC started to take effect.

Winners

Despite plenty of volatility, oil ETFs were pumped up this week. The United States Oil fund (USO) gained 11%.

Losers

A brutal week for smaller banks, including PNC Financial Services (PNC) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), sent the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks fund (IAT) down 6.5% for the week. The SPDR KBW Regional Banking (KRE) ETF lost 6.9% the last five trading sessions.

This Week's Industry Headlines

Launching Pad
Trading began Tuesday for the Market Vectors Indonesia ETF, sponsored by Van Eck Global. The fund is focused on Indonesian equities based on the Market Vectors Indonesia index, which tracks 25 companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from the region.

Data Point
At the end of 2008, data collected by State Street Global Advisors (STT) showed 747 exchange-traded funds in the United States, with about $533.5 billion in assets under management. Assets grew $56.6 billion in December from the year ago; 22 different firms were running ETFs at year-end. One exchange-traded fund was liquidated, and 13 were launched in the last month of 2008.

State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street, announced Wednesday that assets under management in its SPDR exchange traded funds totaled $159.4 billion at the end of 2008. State Street saw net inflows of $70.1 billion in its 80 SPDR ETFs. That represents about 39% of the ETF industry s annual net inflows, the company said.

Next Week s Notebook

Monday
American Express, Amgen, Caterpillar, Crane, Halliburton, Kimberley Clark, McDonald s, Olin, Quest Diagnostics, SL Green Realty, Texas Instruments, VMware, Zions Bancorp

Tuesday
Altera, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, BristolMyers Squibb, Callaway Golf, Dupont, Lexmark International, McGraw Hill Companies, Norfolk Southern, Nucor, Plantronics, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, Valero, Yahoo

Wednesday
Airtran Holdings, AT&T, Baker Hughes, Boeing, Canon, Conoco Phillips, Hess, Kirby, Legg Mason, New York Times, Novartis, Qualcomm, Robert Half International, SAP, Symantec,

Thursday
Alaska Airlines, Altria, Amazon, AutoNation, Black & Decker, Celgene, Chubb, Continental, Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly, Fortune Brands, Gold Fields, JetBlue Airways, L-3 Communications Holdings, Monster Worldwide, Newell Rubbermaid, Polaris Industries, Raytheon, U.S. Airways

Friday
Chevron, ExxonMobil, Gannett, Honda Motor, Honeywell, Proctor & Gamble

Economic Data

Monday
10:00 a.m. Dec. Existing Home Sales
10:00 a.m. Jan. Conference Board Leading Indicators
10:30 a.m. Jan. Dallas Fed. Manufacturing Production Index

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales
9:00 a.m. Nov. S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index
10:00 a.m. Jan. Richmond Fed. Manufacturing Survey
10:00 a.m. Jan. Conference Board Consumer Confidence

Wednesday
2:15 p.m. FOMC Interest Rate Decision

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 a.m. Dec. Durable Goods Orders
10:00 a.m. DJ-BTMU Business barometer
10:00 a.m. Dec. New Home Sales

Friday
8:30 a.m. 4Q Advance GDP
8:30 a.m. 4Q Employment Cost Index
9:45 a.m. Jan. Chicago PMI
10:00 a.m. End-Jan. Reuters/Univ. of Michigan Sentiment Index

Quick Take

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