Momentum in Pharmaceuticals, Transport; Telecom Continues To Lag (ETFs: PPH, IYT, IYZ)

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we discussed the trend of reversals as the previous week's gainers had been flipping to the losing side. Last week we saw hints of the same:

Two weeks ago the internet group led, while last week those stocks were neck-and-neck with telecom for the worst performing, continuing the reversal trend. However, there is a distinction to note - pharmaceuticals. The Pharmaceutical HOLDRs Trust (PPH) was the second-best group two weeks ago, yet takes the top spot here, leading transports, materials and biotech. 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:

* Pharmaceutical HOLDRS (PPH) -2.3%
* iShares Transport Average (IYT) +11.8%
* Materials Sector SPDR (XLB) +2.6%
* iShares Nasdaq Biotech (IBB) +4.2%
* Biotech HOLDRS (BBH) +33.2%
* Health Care Sector SPDR (XLV) +6.9%
* iShares Healthcare (IYH) +8.5%
* iShares Basic Materials (IYM) +3.2%
* iShares Treas Bond (TLT) +3.8%
* MidCap SPDRs (MDY) +12.7%

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

* Telecom HOLDRS (TTH) -8.4%
* Consumer Discretionary (XLY) -6.3%
* iShares Dividend Index (DVY) +1.4%
* Utilities HOLDRS (UTH) +18.7%
* Software HOLDRS (SWH) -6.3%
* Utilities Sector SPDR (XLU) +14.4%
* Retail HOLDRS (RTH) -1.5%
* iShares Utilities (IDU) +12.8%
* Internet HOLDRS (HHH) -5.0%
* iShares Telecom (IYZ) -4.7%