Sector Week-in-Review: Energy Leads Another Up Week

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we saw a slight downside bias with silver leading and internet stocks lagging. This week we find that most groups headed higher (click to enlarge):

Only seven funds, from my list of 86, showed a loss this week and those losses were minimal. Looking into the gains shows that most were not extraordinarily large as none topped five percent, but more than 80 percent of my list gained at least one percent. In other words, the week was characterized by widespread, but mostly mild-to-moderate gains.

At the top of the list we find oil services which offered a bit of a snapback rally. As I discussed last week, the OIH has broken below a former support zone that had bolstered the group throughout the year. Even with this week's bounce, the group remains below that resistance. The Internet HOLDRS (HHH), another group I discussed last week, also bounced but it too remains below resistance.

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.

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

* Oil Service HOLDRS (OIH) -15.8%
* PS Energy Exploration & Production (PXE) -6.9%
* iShares DJ U.S. Energy (IYE) -3.6%
* SPDR-Energy (XLE) -5.9%
* Biotech HOLDRS (BBH) -6.9%
* Internet HOLDRS (HHH) -18.5%
* iShares GS Networking (IGN) -16.6%
* Semiconductor HOLDRS (SMH) -6.2%
* PS Hardware & Consumer Electronics (PHW) -6.3%
* PS WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW) -20.2%
* iShares GS Natural Resources (IGE) -5.8%
* SPDR-Industrial (XLI) -3.2%

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

* Wilshire REIT Fund (RWR) +6.5%
* iShares DJ Select Dividend (DVY) +5.9%
* iShares C&S Realty Majors (ICF) +8.2%
* iShares Lehman Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG) +0.7%
* iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Bond (SHY) +0.4%
* iShares DJ U.S. Real Estate (IYR) +6.6%
* iShares DJ U.S. Consumer Goods (IYK) +5.0%
* SPDR-Consumer Staples (XLP) +7.5%
* iShares Lehman 7-10 Year Bond (IEF) +1.7%
* iShares Lehman 20+ Year Bond (TLT) +1.9%
* iShares DJ U.S. Telecomm (IYZ) +7.7%
* Telecom HOLDRS (TTH) +10.4%

One of the few groups to lose ground this week was the Telecom HOLDRS (TTH), but a look at the data above shows the group had actually been gaining ground ahead of this pullback. If fact, when I rank the funds based on those returns, the TTH was the best performing. The fund had pushed into overbought levels so this week's pullback might offer an interesting opportunity for those looking to buy the group on a dip.