Churning Over: Momentum in 'Net, Drug Sectors While Gold Reverses (HHH, PPH, GLD)

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last time we saw a reversal, as semis went from the best performing group the week before, to the worst performing while gold showed the biggest gains. This week we see that the reversal theme is still alive as gold now moves to the bottom of the list:

Not only did gold emulate the top-to-bottom drop of semis, but the magnitude was also similar - gold gave up almost all of the gains from the previous week. Oil services had been the second best performing group last week and this week it was the third worst. In other words, it seems that we have some "churn" as momentum seems to be short-lived. For a longer-term perspective, the bullets below show the year-to-date returns for the ETFs listed above:

Year-to-Date Returns for This Week's Top Performing Sector Exchange Traded Funds:

* Internet HOLDRS (HHH) -2.4%
* Pharmaceutical HOLDRS (PPH) -5.0%
* iShares Cons Goods (IYK) +2.3%
* Consumer Staples SPDR (XLP) +3.6%
* iShares Utilities (IDU) +15.7%
* Utilities HOLDRS (UTH) +20.8%
* Health Care Sector SPDR (XLV) +5.4%
* Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH) +1.5%
* iShares Healthcare (IYH) +7.2%
* iShares Financial Svcs (IYG) +3.4%

Year-to-Date Returns for This Week's Bottom Performing Sector Exchange Traded Funds:

* Energy Sector SPDR (XLE) +41.9%
* iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) +5.3%
* iShares SmallCap 600 (IJR) +8.9%
* Biotech HOLDRS (BBH) +32.1%
* iShares Natural Resource (IGE) +37.1%
* Technology Sector SPDR (XLK) +2.3%
* Materials Sector SPDR (XLB) +0.4%
* Oil Service HOLDRS (OIH) +54.8%
* Wilshire REIT Fund (RWR) +9.4%
* streetTRACKS Gold (GLD) +14.4%