Markets continued to show signs of strength this week and many sector ETF's have now found positive territory for the year. As for market ETF's, the SPDR Dow Jones ETF (NYSE: DIA) has led the way, now posting a 2.61% gain on the year. The Dow made headlines Monday as it broke above 18,000 for the first time since last July. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) boasted almost a 2% start to the week, finding itself at new highs with little resistance in sight.
While all the major market ETF's have been strong recently, the Power shares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ) has yet to push to new highs. Part of this weakness can be attributed to Nasdaq stocks missing earnings, such as Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) which suffered a 12% decline Tuesday following the earnings release.
The Russell 2000 continues to stick out as the weak index. Small cap stocks have yet to recover as nicely as their large cap peers. The Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM) has turned positive on the year but lacks the buying pressure seen on the other indices.
Most of the action regarding ETF's has been in the oil space following traders reaction to the Doha meeting over the weekend. Oil service ETF (NYSE: OIH) suffered a large gap down to start the week but since then has been nothing but buyers. The reversal in oil names has been so swift that in the first two days of trade this week the OIH has recovered its losses and added another 5.85% in gains. Other notable ETF's such as the SPDR S&P Oil and gas exploration (NYSE: XOP) have also seen similar levels of buying pressure and excitement from the bulls.
Lastly, the Gold Mining Sector ETF (NYSE: GDX) hit new highs Tuesday. You are reading this right, the GDX hit new highs again. Tuesdays pop of 4.87% means that the mining sector is now up almost 70% on the year in a rally that has been non-stop since mid January. While the volatility in Gold has subsided recently, the precious metal still remains near its highs and shows no real sign of serious sellers. This has forced mining sector investors to chase at even the smallest hint of a pullback.