WALL STREET JOURNAL--The credit crunch has made it harder for Americans to indulge in their love affair with debt. So what are they doing? Borrowing more.

While tighter lending standards have cut off all but the most credit-worthy borrowers from auto loans and home loans, many people are turning to credit cards and tapping more of their home-equity lines of credit to dig themselves in deeper.

The pullback that started last week continued this week, with 90% of the funds on my list showing a loss:

This week we have a bounce with just over 80% of my list showing a gain:

The PowerShares Energy Exploration & Production Fund (PXE) "officially" tops the list but there really wasn't much in the way of standout action as the gains were tightly clustered. In broad strokes we had leadership from energy, commodities, small caps and select technology. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and PowerShares Water Resource (PHO) joined the iShares DJ U.S. Energy (IYE) and various oil service funds on the top of the list.

This week we find a pullback, as more 90% of the ETFs I track are lower:

The big news this week was, of course, the quarter-point rate cut by the Fed and the market selloff that followed. If you missed the action on Tuesday this post shows the intraday chart of the action as well as how the indices ended that day. We did see a bounce back attempt on Wednesday morning amid chatter of plan by the Fed to battle the credit crunch but that enthusiasm faded as the day wore on. The rest of the week was more or less a listless drift.

Index performance this week:

Index performance this week:

Index performance year to date:

Last week, we saw a downside bias where financials and housing were the weakest area. This week shows no reprieve from the selling (click to enlarge):

Last week we saw a bounce back led by the SPDR Homebuilders (XHB). This week we find that bounce was short lived (click to enlarge):

Last week we saw a sharp downside bias with the SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) the weakest ETF. This week we find a bounce back led by the XHB:

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Last week we saw a slight upside bias led by energy and commodities. This week we find a distinct downside bias (click to enlarge):

Last week we saw a broad-based rally that was led by the SPDR Homebuilders ETF (XHB). This week has a more muted upside bias:

In terms of overall advancers versus decliners, 56% of my list is showing a gain while 44% is down. In addition to the slight nod to the advancers, the graph above shows the largest gains outpaced the largest declines. In other words, we have a slight skew to the upside both in terms of how widespread the buying was and the magnitude of it. Click to enlarge:

Last week we saw that the SPDR Homebuilders ETF (XHB) was hit for a sizable loss while most groups remained unchanged. This week we see a continuation of the Fed-induced rally (click to enlarge):

Last week the market surged after the FOMC cut interest rates. This week we find more muted action as most of the ETFs on my list stayed near breakeven for the period (click to enlarge):

Last week, we saw a broad-based rally despite the fact that the U.S. Oil Fund (USO) was up. This week we find the "good times" continued as the market surged after the FOMC cut interest rates (click to enlarge):

More than 80% of my list was higher and the largest gains handily outpaced the largest losses. Oil took the lead as the US Oil Fund (USO) gained nearly 5%. Energy-related ETFs, such as the SPDR-Energy (XLE), PowerShares Energy Exploration & Production (PXE), and iShares DJ U.S. Energy (IYE), gained ground along with oil.

Last week I stepped back to talk about the longer-term perspectives and noted that the year-to-date action was still fairly positive. This week I return to the short-term view of this week's leaders and laggards (click to enlarge):

Given the recent market turmoil, I thought it might be useful to step back from the daily whipsaw action and focus on some longer-term time frames. The graphs below show the leading and lagging ETFs from my list for 2 periods - since the beginning of the year and since the mid-July market peak:

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Given the bounce in financials this past week, I thought it might be interesting to delve into some of the ETFs in that area. Of the financial funds on my list, the 3 main ETFs that I follow are Dow Jones U.S. Financial Sector Index Fund (IYF), the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), and the Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH). (I know that some will argue that HOLDRS are "technically" not ETFs, but they are close enough for my purposes.)

The iShares site shows the Dow Jones U.S. Financial Sector Index Fund is comprised of these top sub-sectors: banks (41%), general financial (25%), nonlife insurance (16%), and real estate (10%). The Financial Select Sector SPDR's fact sheet shows it is made up of: diversified financial services (24%), insurance (23%), commercial banks (18%), capital markets (17%) and thrifts & mortgage finance (7%). And, a check of the HOLDRS site shows the Regional Bank HOLDRS is, well, comprised mostly of banks.

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week we saw a broad-based rally that was led by the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW) and SPDR Homebuilders (XHB). This week we see a skew to the downside.

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Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: I touched on the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Fund (PBW) back in June but thought the fund was worth revisiting, given its performance this week. In that discussion of the ETF, we saw it had ticked to a new annual high and I said that with oil prices remaining a headline mainstay, it might be worthwhile to check into the PBW. Below is the weekly chart.

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