Energy, Utility SPDRs Pull Ahead

The Energy SPDR rode the rally in
energy stocks Wednesday as crude and gasoline futures surged. The declines in
the tradable techs broadened.

The Energy SPDR
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advanced
2.1%, the day’s biggest gain among the exchange-traded
funds
. The October crude oil
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notched a 10-year high, up
1.07 to 34.90 on the NYMEX. Unleaded gasoline
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closed up .0309 higher
at .9980. For more on the day’s futures action, see Marc Dupee’s Futures
Market Recap
.

Among the Energy Spider’s largest
components, Chevron
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rose 2 9/16 to 88 1/2, Coastal
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2 7/16 to
71 1/2.

It was another good day for
rate-sensitive cyclical and financial stocks and their corresponding
exchange-traded funds. Financials also got a lift from a German news report that
Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest lending house, is negotiating an acquisition
of investment bank J.P. Morgan
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.

The Dow Jones Financial iShares
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rose 1.2%, the Financial SPDR
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0.8%, the Regional Bank HOLDR
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2.1%. Aided by more bottom fishing in retail stocks, the Cyclicals/Transportation
SPDR
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picked up 1.5%. The Utilities SPDR
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, based on
dividend-paying stocks that react to the bond market, rose 1.3%.

On the downside, the Semiconductor
HOLDR
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tumbled 6.4%, extending Tuesday’s losses in the wake of bearish
analyst remarks on Intel
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. On Wednesday, it was the turn of Micron
Technology
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to suffer a hit from the analysts. Shares in the chipmaker
shed 8 1/2 to 70 on a Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette analyst’s report
forecasting lower prices for the company’s memory chips.

The B2B and Internet HOLDRs
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,
which swam against the tech slide on Tuesday, fell in line Thursday with the
sinking techs, dropping 6.3% and 2.7%, respectively. The Biotech HOLDR
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lost 5.6%. The depth of the selling in biotechs contributed to a news
reversal
in Generex Biotechnology
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shares.

The Internet Infrastructure HOLDR
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declined 4.2%, the Dow Jones Internet iShares
(
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4.1%, the Nasdaq 100
Tracking Stock
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3.9%, the Dow Jones Technology SPDR
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3.2%, the
Broadband HOLDR
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2.7%.

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