Tech, Financial ETFs Lead Peers
The exchange-traded funds
rallied broadly Tuesday, led by techs and financials. The move appeared powered
by a boost in the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence.Â
Let me venture two
observations. (1) Consumer spending drives 70% of the economy. (2) The drop in
bond prices sent the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 4.983%. That compares to
4.5% on the discount rate and 5.0% on the fed funds. So the Federal Reserve is
no longer behind the curve. Perhaps the financial markets are at last responding
to Fed stimulus. (Markets, of course, respond to monetary policy ahead of the
economy.)
The Software HOLDR
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rose 6.7%, the day’s sharpest gain among the exchange-traded funds tracked by
the TradingMarkets FundScanner.
Among its components, Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 9.0%, BMC Software
(
BMC |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating)
9.3%, Micromuse
(
MUSE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 8.9%, Computer Associates International
(
CA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 5.0%.
 
The Wireless HOLDR
(
WMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) picked up
5.0%, the Internet HOLDR
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 4.8%, the Dow Jones Telecommunications
iShares
(
IYZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 4.3%, the Telecom HOLDR
(
TTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 4.2%.
The Dow Jones Financial
Services iShares
(
IYG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 4.2%, forming a bullish engulfing pattern. The
Regional Banking HOLDR
(
RKH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 3.9%, the Dow Jones Financial iShares
(
IYF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
3.0%, the Financial SPDR
(
XLF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2.8%.
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