Weekly Rewind: An Up-Week, Despite Uneven Performance

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(Glossary)

You may have not guessed after Thursday evening's rout on the auto rescue vote failure that the S&P 500 (SPY) was up +1.2% on the week, but indeed it was (AP - Auto Bailout Dies). However, U.S. gains were meager in comparison to International (EFA) markets, up +7.1% no doubt assisted by continued U.S. Dollar (UUP) weakness, which was down -4.4%. On a related trade, many Commodity and Bond ETFs look increasingly over-stretched to the upside ((RSI)-2/5, (DBC) 91/64 and (TLT) 79/75).

In spite of the positive week, note how uneven performance was among the sectors, featuring a Materials ((XLB) +5.3%) and Energy ((XLE) +9.3%) comeback, and Technology's ((XLK) +2.1%) outperformance at the expense of the Transports ((IYT) -5.5%) and Financials ((XLF) -5.3%).

Week 50 of 2008 holds a busy economic calendar, the least of which will not be Tuesday's FOMC policy statement. Also, note that it is an option expiry week, as follows:

• Yahoo! - U.S. Economic Calendar
• Yahoo! - U.S. Earnings Calendar

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Enjoy your weekend!