Below is a list of ETFs making trading at new 52 week highs on Friday, ranked in order of 6 month performance. Leveraged ETFs are included. Gold is one theme on the list, as is technology and 3 international oriented funds made the list, iShares Israel (EIS), iShares United Kingdom (EWU), and Currency Shares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA):

Author's Disclosure: No Positions

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-12-2009

On Thursday, equities finally hit a legitimate wall of resistance and started showing signs of a double top pattern (i.e. peaks at October and November highs). Although market news and economic data were a combination of mixed results, positive catalysts had absolutely no impact on Thursday’s trading.

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"California tumbles into the sea."

Yes, Steely Dan predicted it in 1973, when Ronald Reagan was still Governor but we thought they were talking about earthquakes at the time. This year it’s clearly California’s 49.3% budget gap and 16.2% drop in state revenue that has them leading a list of lemming states to their doom. Over 1M state and municipal employees may be getting their last checks this Christmas as 9 states face budget issues on par with California.

Earlier this year, best-selling author Harry Dent , Jr. ventured into the ETF industry, launching the Dent Tactical ETF (DENT) in a move that further blurred the lines between active and passive management. DENT is actively managed by a team of analysts using primarily economic and demographic analysis to determine the overall trend of U.S. and global economies and how consumer spending patterns may change based on this analysis. DENT has been trading for only about two months, but a look at the fund’s performance over that period and its current holdings reveals some interesting trends.

Blurring the Lines

DENT isn’t the first actively-managed ETF – PowerShares introduced four active funds in April 2008 and Grail followed suit in May of this year – but it is unique in several ways. The PowerShares and Grail active funds focus primarily of selecting individual stocks (and bonds and REITs, in the case of PLK and PSR, respectively), while DENT is an “ETF of ETFs,” investing in other exchange-traded funds across various asset classes to execute a tactical strategy.

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-11-2009

On Wednesday, the "new 52 week high club" was no longer an exclusive category for the Dow Industrials as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices both made new 13 month highs. This expanding participation in new highs is in order if bulls are to sustain their momentum. Prior to this development, one of my concerns has been the asymmetrical character of this rally whereby a disproportionate share of technical leadership was emanating from the Dow, the most narrow of major equity indices representing the U.S. economy.

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Equity Futures: Dow +65.00. S&P +7.60. NASDAQ +10.00. Japanese Nikkei +90.00. German Dax +20.00.

European Trade: European markets saw strong positive momentum from the opening bell, with the major indexes surging approximately 1%. The same positive momentum also influenced the S&P futures, helping the index reach a new yearly high, after it broke above the 1100.00 area.

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-10-2009

The most important observation about Tuesday’s session is the fact that the market was very stingy in giving back any of its 2% plus gains from Monday. Without major economic data or many earnings announcements, there were no strong catalysts to drive the market in a decisive direction. Bulls earned a well deserved day of rest after having pushed up the S&P 500 for the last 6 out of 7 trading days.

I have previously written numerous articles about sovereign credit ratings, asking whether the UK would lose its AAA rating, and pointing out that the credit rating agencies were playing games to avoid stripping the U.S., UK, Ireland and Spain of their AAA ratings.

Reuters notes today that the UK is indeed in danger of losing its AAA rating:

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-09-2009

Today I shall deviate from the usual format of the ETF Market Trends™ report and indulge in the reminiscence of the zenith of my youth some 20 years ago, which marks the fall of the Berlin Wall and a time when I was in love with a young beautiful woman from Berlin with eyes cooler than the bluest hues of any ocean and a heart warmer than the most intimate of campside fire conversations shared over a bottle of good bourbon whiskey with strangers (only a real outdoors-man will appreciate the latter comparison).

Against the backdrop of historically low interest rates and government stimulation, participants in property markets in both the United States and the United Kingdom responded with nothing short of jubilance.

Whereas pessimism was the leading dynamic for the majority of 2008, it seems that the Spring of 2009 brought a renewal of housing euphoria, though in a more limited and fragile sense.

Friday’s comments will be brief due to schedule conflicts. Negative employment news had very little impact upon the major equity indices (i.e. Dow Industrials, S&P 500, and Nasdaq) which finished slightly positive while the Russell 2000 closed down by a small fraction.

Bullish events:

Asset allocation is the most influential on investment outcome. There have been growing signs that the worst of the global crisis might have passed. While the US dollar may continue to weaken and the US loses significance in the global landscape, an allocation to other developed markets is deemed necessary. After all, 76% of global GDP is outside the US.

The most popular ETF to provide global diversification is iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA), which tracks Europe, Australasia and Far East Index of developed countries.

It's not quite Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief -- in fact, it's more like two -- but it seems that at least some mainstream media types have stopped drinking the Keynesian Kool-Aid. They are beginning to accept that an exponential increase in our nation's debt load could bring us to the point where our nation is forced make the kinds of "choices" -- I use that term loosely -- that used to be reserved for banana republics and failed states (as it happens, that shouldn't be too much of a surprise to those who read one of my earlier posts on the subject). As Newsweek economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson notes in "Up Against a Wall of Debt, Part II," when you owe too much to others, your options suddenly become limited.

Are the United States, Japan, Great Britain, and other first-world nations in danger of defaulting on their debt?

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-05-2009

From the opening on Thursday, major U.S. equity indexes started the day on positive momentum and continually added to their intraday gains to close above the 90th percentile of their daily trading range.The DIA, SPY, and QQQQ have ended their corrections and re-established their support levels at the 20, 50, and 200 day moving averages. The only exception is the small-cap IWM which remains in both short and intermediate downtrends. However, the IWM did manage to participate in attaining a new 5 day high along with the other major equity indices.

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-03-2009

Bulls took advantage of dollar weakness and bought stocks in earnest to support the S&P 500 in its 2nd consecutive day of positive performance. Initially, stocks traded lower as the U.S. dollar continued to advance, but a surge in precious metals buying sent spot gold prices to a new 52 week high and forced the greenback to retreat and settle for a small positive close in the lower end of its daily trading range. A $6.7bn purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF by India’s Reserve Bank was responsible for this explosive move.

This week will be busy for market analysts with four major central banks holding their scheduled monetary policy meetings: the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, and last but not least, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank on Thursday.

The RBA stands predictably ahead of the pack

ETF Market Direction Summary: 11-02-2009

In answer to last week’s worry over a sustainable economic recovery, Monday’s key economic data points served as bullish catalysts for the day’s positive trading session: