Volatile Week Ends With Sharp Fall

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: Last week, we saw widespread weakness with housing the hardest-hit area, for the second week in a row. This week, we find a slight bounce back:

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After very wild ride this week, roughly two-thirds of the ETFs from my list are higher, but we do have moderately large moves at both ends. A gain of more than 4% by the PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (PPA) is counterbalanced by an equal drop from the Oil Service HOLDRS Trust (OIH).

After finishing as the weakest sector for the past two weeks, the SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) sees only a mild decline (compared to what we have seen) here as it follows the OIH. However, this "mild decline" continues the string of new lows the XHB has been hitting.

Index performance this week

Index performance year to date

Charts: Google Finance