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PEZ

Earnings seasons are always hectic times on Wall Street, but this time around it seems to come with added importance. We’ve seen signs and heard whisperings that the recession has ended and a recovery is underway, but investors are anxious for confirmation from corporate America. Last week’s reports gave mixed results, with positive surprises from JP Morgan and Google, but disappointing results and outlooks from IBM and Citi. [click to continue…]

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Consumer Discretionary ETFs Surge on Confidence News

by Michael Johnston on May 26, 2009

Consumer discretionary ETFs surged Tuesday morning on news that consumer confidence increased again in May to its highest level since September 2008. The Conference Board announced that its index of consumer confidence for May increased to 54.9 from 40.8 in April (originally reported at 39.2). Expectations for economic activity over the next six months jumped to 72.3 from 51.0 in the prior month.

Following the report, ETFs focused on consumer discretionary indices surged, with State Street’s XLY, iShares’ RXI, and PowerShares’ PEZ all up more than 2%. The report largely offset disappointing results on home prices released earlier Tuesday morning, indicating that home prices continued to fall in 15 of the top 20 major metropolitan areas.

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