Sector Week-in-Review: Homebuilders Drive Strong Close For '06

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we saw a skew to the downside with oil-service ETFs leading the decline. This time we find an all-around bounce-back as only 13-percent of my list shows a loss on this holiday-shortened week:

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For the most part it looks like the action was quiet this week. Given the "holiday bookends" and shortened time for trading, it isn't too surprising to find that most moves were muted. Periods of light participation like we had this week can see large swings but the norm is more toward whipsaw behavior. In the end, we find that most gains were limited to less than two percent while losses tended to be under one percent.

The SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) , iShares C&S Realty Majors (ICF) , iShares DJ U.S. Real Estate (IYR) , and Wilshire REIT Fund (RWR) tied for first place but even those moves failed to breach the three-percent mark. The U.S. Oil Fund (USO) was the largest decliner but it too failed to move more than three percent.

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:

* SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) +8.5%
* iShares C&S Realty Majors (ICF) +20.9%
* iShares DJ U.S. Real Estate (IYR) +18.1%
* Wilshire REIT Fund (RWR) +17.4%
* Telecom HOLDRS (TTH) +20.2%
* iShares DJ U.S. Telecomm (IYZ) +17.9%
* streetTRACKS Gold (GLD) +6.9%
* PS Zacks Micro Cap (PZI) +11.7%
* iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) +12.9%
* PS Building & Construction (PKB) +7.8%
* First Trust DJ Select MicroCap (FDM) +12.7%
* PS Telecom & Wireless (PTE) +23.2%

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

* PS Retail (PMR) +16.3%
* Internet HOLDRS (HHH) +2.7%
* PS Energy Exploration & Production (PXE) +6.7%
* iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Bond (SHY) +1.0%
* iShares Nasdaq Biotech (IBB) +12.9%
* iShares Lehman 7-10 Year Bond (IEF) +3.9%
* PS Oil Services (PXJ) +2.6%
* iShares Lehman Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG) +3.4%
* Oil Service HOLDRS (OIH) +0.8%
* iShares Lehman 20+ Year Bond (TLT) +6.8%
* PS Biotechnology & Genome (PBE) +16.1%
* US Oil Fund (USO) -22.3%