Profit taking slowed the market rally on Tuesday, though cautiously optimistic words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bolstered hopes that the very worst of the recession may have passed. In a Tuesday speech, he said the rate of economic contraction may be slowing, which wasn't enough to spur big gains but didn't jostle a still volatile market. To see a complete rundown on Tuesday s trading session see our market story.

Winners

As swine flu fears abated, the iShares MSCI Mexico Investable Market fund (EWW) rebounded a bit, closing up 2.0%. Investors with enthusiasm for even less developed markets pushed up the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio fund (PMNA) 2.4%.

Losers

Investors taking profits after the recent semiconductor rally dealt a blow to the iShares MSCI Taiwan fund (EWT), which slipped 4.9%. Slipping natural gas prices dropped shares of the United States Natural Gas (UNG) fund by 3.2%

Tuesday s Industry Headlines

Launching Pad
State Street Global Advisors (STT) wants to create another exchange-traded fund to invest in nonconvertible preferred stocks, replicating the Wells Fargo (WFC) Hybrid and Preferred Securities Aggregate Index. It has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but did not include the proposed annual expense ratio.

Wednesday s Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls
Alon USA Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, Avis Budget Group, Blackstone Group, Boston Beer, Celera, Cisco Systems, Devon Energy, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, FGX, Fortress Investment Group, Garmin, Great Plains Energy, McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, Murphy Oil, News Corp., Orbitz Worldwide, Papa John's International, Petrohawk Energy, Prudential Financial, RR Donnelley, Tesoro, Transocean, TRW

Economic Data
8:15 a.m. April ADP Employment Survey

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