Investors stampeded back to the market as bullish sentiments rallied stocks on Friday. Exchange-traded funds linked to the S&P 500 and the financial sector were some of the most heavily-traded names. That comes a day after the results of bank stress tests were made official. Also, better-than-expected new jobless claim numbers added to sentiments that the worst of the recession is in the process of passing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 164 points to close at 8574, a 4% gain for the week. For a complete rundown of Friday s trading session see our market story.

Winners

The SPDR KBW Bank fund (KBE) rose 33.3% for the week, as a trickle of leaked information about the Treasury Department's stress tests of 19 major banks became official Thursday. Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH) rose 24.3% and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF) rose 20.6%.

Losers

The Semiconductor HOLDRS fund (SMH) dropped 4.9% for the week as investors took profits from the tech sector, and the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF (XLK) lost 2.8%. The iShares MSCI Taiwan Index fund (EWT), which is heavily based in computer chip makers, lost 2.7%.

This Week s Industry News

Data Point
The asset manager reported there were 742 exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes in the U.S. Total assets came to $531 billion, a 10.2% increase from March. The three largest managers of the 22 firms that run ETFs were Barclay's Global Investors, State Street and Vanguard, a trio that represented 84% of the U.S. market. Average daily trading volume dropped from $88 billion in March to $75 billion, and seven new funds were launched.

PowerShares plans to close 19 ETFs on May 18. The company, which still has 150 ETFs or ETNs, said many closing funds failed to get enough market interest. PowerShares said the doomed funds represent less than 1% of their ETF assets under management. Shareholders can sell the shares before the funds close or await a distribution based on their value as of May 22.

Launching Pad
Grail Advisors launched the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value fund (GVT), its first actively managed exchange-traded fund. The fund seeks to beat the Russell 1000 Index but will not track specific benchmarks. The fund initially launched with 152 stocks and an expense ratio of 0.79%.

State Street Global Advisors (STT) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create another exchange-traded fund to invest in nonconvertible preferred stocks, replicating the Wells Fargo (WFC) Hybrid and Preferred Securities Aggregate Index.

The WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Currency fund (CEW) started trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The actively-managed fund is WisdomTree's ninth currency fund, and trades in currencies that include the Brazilian real, Chinese yuan, Chilean peso, Indian rupee, Israeli shekel, Mexican peso, Polish zloty, South African rand, South Korean won, Taiwanese dollar and Turkish new lira. The fund has an annual expense ratio of 0.55%.

Next Week s Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls

Monday
Allied Capital, Ambac Financial Group, Bowne & Co., Century Casinos, Conseco, Ctrip.com International, DISH Network, Fluor, Force Protection, Great Plains Energy, HSBC Finance, Mesa Air Group, Nautilus, Nissan Motor, Peerless Manufacturing, PetMed Express, Playboy Enterprises, Priceline.com, Quest Software, Reliant Energy, Rosetta Stone, Stifel Financial, Targacept, Virgin Mobile USA

Tuesday
Advanced Life Sciences, American Italian Pasta, Applied Materials, Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., GenTek, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea, InterContinental Hotels Group, Learning Tree International, MBIA, O'Charleys, Realogy, Trend Micro, Warnaco Group

Wednesday
Acxiom, Allianz, Clearwire, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Helen of Troy, ING Groep, Jack in the Box, Liz Claiborne, Opnet Technologies, Polymer Group, Stanley, Tidewater, Transgenomic, Wabash National

Thursday
Agilent Technologies, American Medical Alert, ATA, Audiovox, Blockbuster, BT Group, Cascades, Interleukin Genetics, Kohls, Lear, LifeCycle Pharma, LightPath Technologies, Nordstrom, SABMiller, Sony, Tandy Brands, Tower Semiconductor, Urban Outfitters, Wal-Mart Stores

Friday
Abercrombie & Fitch, Atlantic Power, Chaparral Energy, Craft Brewers Alliance, Data Service, Easton-Bell Sports, First Data, JCPenney, Nielsen

Economic Data

Monday
No major economic indicators

Tuesday
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales
8:30 a.m. March Trade Balance: Previous
8:55 a.m. Redbook Retail Sales
2:00 p.m. March Federal Budget Balance
5:00 p.m. ABC/Washington Post Consumer Confidence

Wednesday
8:30 a.m. April Import Prices
8:30 a.m. April Retail Sales
8:30 a.m. April Retail Sales, ex-autos
10:00 a.m. March Business Inventories
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 a.m. March Producer Price Index
8:30 a.m. March Producer Price Index, ex-food & energy
10:00 a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer

Friday
8:30 a.m. April 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. February Treasury International Capital
9:15 a.m. March Industrial Production
9:15 a.m. March Capacity Utilization
10:00 a.m. Mid-May Reuters/Univ. of Michigan Sentiment Index

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