Market Wrap-Up

As investors came back from the weekend there was plenty for them to consider during Monday's trading session.

Financial and housing ETFs were front and center. Traders sent the shares of Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lower as they continued to speculate about their future health. The National Association of Home Builders released a new report that said its members' confidence levels about future home sales remains flat and at the low levels of the last few months. The dismal performance of these two sectors dragged down the broader market all day.

Serving as a backdrop was Tropical Storm Fay, which at the end of the trading session was gaining strength as it inched closer to the Florida coast (although its track seems to indicate it will miss a collision course with oil and gas assets). The storm put commodities like oil and orange juice in play all day. Agricultural crop prices also got a boost from a declining dollar and conjecture that might lead to increasing global demand.

Amidst all that, traders headed for safe harbors. Gold finished the day up $13 an ounce to $805. Oil jumped around all session before closing at $113 per barrel.

In the end, the concerns over financials and housing spooked most traders. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 180 points to 11480.

Winners

Some investors were pushing up the prices of agricultural commodities on a bet Tropical Storm Fay would elevate to hurricane status and cause some damage to Florida's crops. Also playing a part was a falling dollar that could make U.S. food stocks cheaper to foreigners, spiking demand. The

PowerShares DB Agriculture ETF

Losers

Lehman Brothers lost 6.3%, in part, because of an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that analysts think the firm may announce a $1.8 billion loss in its fiscal third quarter that closes in two weeks. Shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae tumbled over concerns about how shareholders would make out if there was a government bailout of the two beleaguered mortgage giants. That one-two combination made for a tough day for financial ETFs. The

SPDR Select Financials

SPDR KBW Bank fund

Housing ETFs also got nailed. With the outlook for this industry still considerably weak, the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction fund pulled back 5.1%.

Monday's Industry Headlines

Numbers Game

State Street released its monthly snapshot of the ETF Industry. Through July 31, 708 ETFs held $578 billion. In July, 17 new funds were launched and seven were liquidated.

Launching Pad
Nuveen Investments has added to its Elements line of ETFs with three funds that follow the stock-picking strategy of legendary Columbia University professor Benjamin Graham. The funds Benjamin Graham Large Cap Value Index-Total Return, Benjamin Graham Small Cap Value Index-Total Return, and Benjamin Graham Total Market Value Index-Total Return track indexes of companies that have solid balance sheets and a stock price that's trading at a discount the foundations of Graham's investing philosophy.

Tuesday's Notebook

Earnings

Analog Devices, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Jack Henry, La-Z-Boy, Medtronic, Novatel, Saks, Target

Economic Data
7:45 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales Index
8:30a.m. July Producer Price Index
8:30a.m. July PPI, Ex-Food & Energy
8:30a.m. July Housing Starts
8:55a.m. Redbook Retail Sales Index

Quick Take

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