Solar Slides on News From Europe

Market Wrap-Up

Oil continued its historic run Wednesday. The price of a barrel of crude crossed the $144 level, up almost $3 on a two-million-barrel dip in weekly inventories and continuing concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East. That news was coupled with a series of disappointing corporate events. General Motors (GM) hit a 54-year low when a Merrill Lynch (MER) analyst downgraded the ailing auto maker and suggested it may have to declare bankruptcy if sales continues to hit the skids. Blockbuster (BBI) dropped its bid to buy Circuit City (CC). Bloomberg reported that Merrill Lynch and Citigroup (C) had their second-quarter earnings estimates slashed by Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney. Both stocks fell on the announcement. With all that swirling around the stock market, the only apparent bright spot was the resurgence of interest in Yahoo (YHOO) after news detailing Microsoft's (MSFT) efforts to line up investors for a possible breakup of the company. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 167 points to 11,215. It is now squarely in bear-market territory.

Winners

Investors had been exiting the PowerShares India Portfolio ETF (PIN) when the country showed signs of experiencing high inflation. But as its rupee has weakened traders have begun to think that the country's software firms, in particular, will see a pop in their earnings from overseas sales that are converted back into the home currency. This ETF gained 1.5% on Wednesday.

Losers

For the last two days solar ETFs have sold off over concerns Spain would cut government incentives enjoyed by the industry. Market Vectors Solar Energy (KWT) and Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy (TAN) dropped 6.5% and 7%, respectively.

Thursday's Notebook

Economic Data
Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Nonfarm Payrolls (8:30 a.m.), Unemployment Rate (8:30 a.m.), ISM Non-Manufacturing Composite index (10 a.m.), Business Barometer (10 a.m.)

Quick Take

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

10 Largest ETFs
Symbol	Net Assets	Price	52 Week High	52 Week Low	Volume
SPY	77,056	126.2	156.39	127.7	274,600,222
EFA	47,565	66.75	85.64	67.18	11,745,384
EEM	27,269	129.43	165.39	117.49	16,391,927
GLD	NA	93.04	99.81	64.2	2,728,229
IVV	16,710	126.4	156.65	127.92	3,339,819
QQQQ	17,586	44.69	55.03	41.17	161,600,444
IWF	14,092	54.06	63.64	52.79	3,050,381
SHY	8,988	82.68	84.49	79.69	682,777
VTI	10,808	63.13	77.66	63.14	135,754
IWD	8,900	67.75	89.3	68.88	1,901,563