Sector Week-in-Review: Energy and Semis Lead Big Up Week

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we discussed how losses had continued to dominate as commodities-related funds intermixed with some tech and housing to lead the action lower. This week we find a strong reversal:

Nearly every ETF, from my list of 86 funds, was able to show a gain on the week. The exceptions were the Internet HOLDRS, iShares DJ Transportation Average and the PowerShares Leisure & Entertainment fund. At the top of the list we find commodity-related funds mixed with technology, and a bit of housing.

For a longer-term perspective, the bullets below show how the ETFs listed above have faired over the last six-months, prior to this week. In other words, it shows how they had been performing before this week's move.

Prior Six-Month Returns for This Week's Top Performing Sector Exchange Traded Funds:

* PS Energy Exploration & Production (PXE) -6.1%
* Oil Service HOLDRS (OIH) -15.4%
* iShares GS Semiconductor (IGW) -22.0%
* Telecom HOLDRS (TTH) +8.9%
* PS Oil Services (PXJ) -16.2%
* PS Semiconductors (PSI) -19.6%
* Semiconductor HOLDRS (SMH) -21.8%
* iShares DJ U.S. Telecomm (IYZ) +6.5%
* iShares GS Natural Resources (IGE) -4.3%
* Wireless HOLDRS (WMH) -10.1%
* SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) n/a
* iShares DJ U.S. Energy (IYE) -2.9%

Prior Six-Month Returns for This Week's Bottom Performing Sector Exchange Traded Funds:

* Retail HOLDRS (RTH) -6.2%
* SPDR-Industrial (XLI) +1.6%
* SPDR-Consumer Staples (XLP) +5.0%
* PS Food & Beverage (PBJ) +1.6%
* PS Retail (PMR) -2.2%
* iShares Lehman Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG) -2.9%
* iShares Lehman 20+ Year Bond (TLT) -7.1%
* iShares Lehman 7-10 Year Bond (IEF) -3.7%
* iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Bond (SHY) -0.9%
* PS Leisure & Entertainment (PEJ) -7.5%
* iShares DJ Transportation Average (IYT) +4.3%
* Internet HOLDRS (HHH) -28.5%