Market Wrap-Up

The market got off on the right foot Monday thanks to a series of optimistic events that happened during the week's first trading session.

During congressional testimony Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke put his stamp of approval on the prospect of another government stimulus plan and the White House indicated it was open to the idea. The meat of the third-quarter earnings season got underway this week with positive results from Halliburton (HAL). The company lost $21 million, mainly because of a debt repayment and some one-time charges. Strip out those details and the company actually made 76 cents a share. Across the globe, there was additional news that governments were injecting cash into their ailing financial systems. The Netherlands pumped just over $13 billion into ING (ING). General Motors (GM) and Chrysler continued to discuss a merger agreement as the two auto giants struggle to navigate a horrendous car market. It also appeared Monday that credit markets, a cause of concern to many traders the last few weeks, were starting to ease up.

Meanwhile, there was speculation OPEC will cut production when it convenes a meeting later this week. Oil jumped almost $3 a barrel to the $74 level.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average held steady at a 200-point gain level most of the session. That was considered a relatively calm day, given the swings of the last few weeks. But once again trading escalated at the close of the stock market. The Dow climbed 413 points to 9,265.

Winners

The prospect of an OPEC production cut sent natural resource ETFs higher Monday. The United States Oil ETF (USO), which tracks the percentage increase in the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude, increased 4.3%. The SPDR Metals & Mining fund (XME) gained 13.5%. The SPDR Select Energy ETF (XLE) climbed 8.9%.

Losers

Some emerging-market funds sold off Monday, albeit during light trading. Market Vectors Africa (AFK) lost 2.5%. Market Vectors Gulf States (MES) dropped 3.8%.

Tuesday's Notebook

Earnings & Conference Calls

Tuesday: 3M, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apple, Biogen, BlackRock, Boston Scientific, Candela, Carter's, Caterpillar, CEC Entertainment, Coach, DuPont, E*trade, Fifth Third, Forest Laboratories, Freeport-McMoRan, Jakk's Pacific, Keycorp, Lexmark, Manpower, National City, Panera Bread, Pfizer, Raymond James, Schering-Plough, Sybase, Tupperware, UAL, Western Union, Yahoo

Economic Data

Tuesday
7:45a.m. Chain Store Sales
8:55a.m. Redbook Retail Sales

Quick Take

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