Posts for Ticker ‘ITB’

New Home Sales Highlight Softness (XHB, ITB, DHI, LEN)

Burning House ImageThe Commerce Department has just shown a report that new home sales for the month of September turned south.  This may increase the call for that first time home buyer $8,000.00 tax credit, but it also highlights that housing prices are not going to rocket higher and highlights just how sensitive the home-buyer sector of the economy is with or without a tax handout.  The report came in at 402,000 annualized units, down from the 417,000 annualized number for August and very far under the 440,000 expected according to Dow Jones and under the 440,000 expected from Bloomberg.  We are watching the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) ETFs fall in response.  DR Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) and Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) are two of the hardest hit housing stocks today after the news.
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Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 10:26 am in Economy, Housing, , , ,

Home Builders Already Cautious, Get More Cautious (XHB, ITB)

Burning House ImageThe prior data out of the National Association of Home Builders had been improving for three consecutive months.  New data for October came out today showing that the index slipped.  The problem with already seeing a slip is that the home builder confidence was never really back in the first place.  This response was from some 493 builders around the nation.  We are watching the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) ETFs fall in response.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 1:55 pm in ETF, Economy, Housing, ,

Are Housing Gains A Sham? (XHB, ITB, URE, HD)

burning-house-image4This morning’s July data for existing home sales, or used homes, posted another gain and this makes it the fourth consecutive month, according to the National Association of Realtors.  This created more excitement in the markets and in everything tied to property. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) is up 3.9% at $15.38 and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) is up 4.7% at $13.13.  Even the Ultra Real Estate ProShares (NYSE: URE), which seeks pre-fee and pre-expense moves of twice the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate index, is up big by 6.1% at $5.78 despite this not being an apples-to-apples comparison.  It is easy to point to figures for support or contradiction to any trend, but in reality we want to see if this excitement is real or if this is just another temporary sham in housing.
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Posted on: August 21, 2009 – 12:21 pm in Economy, Housing, , , ,

Lower Housing Prices Generating Much Higher Sales (XHB, ITB)

The Commerce Department’s data on new home sales did not just rise in June for a third straight month.  The new home sales rose sharply.  The headline number came in at an 11% gain to a seasonally adjusted annualized figure of 384,000.  Dow Jones had an estimate of a 2.3% gain to 350,000 on an annualized basis.  This has the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) on the move.
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Posted on: July 27, 2009 – 9:14 am in Economy, Housing, ,

Homebuilders Look Less Depressed in Survey (XHB, ITB)Homebuilders Look Less Depressed in Survey (XHB, ITB)

It looks like the NAHB survey of homebuilders are again feeling a bit “less-bad” than in recent surveys.  The survey for July shows a reading of 17, up from 15 in June.  The boost reflects more confidence in new single-family housing, but the building community is still concerned about jobless data and unemployment.  The homebuilder ETFs, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB)  are up but have not shown any sharp reactions to the news.
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Posted on: July 16, 2009 – 12:24 pm in Economy, Housing, ,

Questionable Confidence Among Builders (XHB, ITB)

Burning House ImageThe confidence among home builders looked like it was creeping higher, but the most recent data from the National Association of Home Builders showed a decrease in June.  This drop put the index down to 15 for June from 16 in the survey.  There were hopes that we were going to have our third consecutive gain in the index.  That was not in the cards.  The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) ETF’s are staying down on the news.
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Posted on: June 15, 2009 – 12:26 pm in Economy, Housing, ,

Homebuilder ETFs Run On Housing Data (XHB, ITB)

The new home sales data is showing a very mixed bag, with a bit of a positive twist to it. We are seeing a run up in the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) as a result.  March 2009 new home sales came in at a rate of -0.6% down to 356,000 on an annualized basis.  We had consensus estimates pegged at 337,00 from Dow Jones and 330,000 from Bloomberg.  February was given a sharp revision to its already high +4.7% to a higher +8.2%.
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Posted on: April 24, 2009 – 9:12 am in ETF, Economy, Housing, ,

Looking for Next Homebuilder Merger? (DHI, TOL, NVR, MDC, LEN, KBH, RYL, MTH, HOV, MHO, SPF, XHB, ITB, PKB)

We won’t bother telling you about the homebuilder merger this morning, because we already covered it once.  But in a down and out sector, you will see that traders are looking to see if there will be other mergers in the battered group.  As you will also see, the lower market cap stocks are the ones where traders are guessing as to which will be the next take-out candidate.  Our cut off was a $100 million market cap as of yesterday and every stock in the sector that we track in the U.S. is higher.

DR Horton Inc. (DHI)….. $3.5B; +5.8% at $10.78
Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL). $3.1B; +4.5% at $18.86
NVR Inc. (NVR)……….. $2.6B; +4% at $6.86
MDC Holdings Inc. (MDC).. $1.5B; +4.5% at $30.95
Lennar Corp. (LEN)……. $1.2B; +11% at $7.98
KB Home (KBH)………… $1.1B; +6% at $14.30
Ryland Group Inc. (RYL).. $728.8M; +6% at $16.80
Meritage Homes Corp(MTH). $401.3M; +7.3% at $12.99
Hovnanian (HOV)………. $125.0M; +11% at $1.72
M/I Homes, Inc. (MHO)…. $121.7M; +2.2% at $8.72
Standard Pacific (SPF)… $100.6M; +11% at $1.00

Oddly enough, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) ETF is only up almost 4% at $11.37.  The other ETF, the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) is up 3.5% at $9.25.  This is a slightly different ETF, but the PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construct (NYSE: PKB) is up 1.3% at $9.65 on very thin volume.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: April 8, 2009 – 8:46 am in ETF, Housing, Mergers and Buy Outs, Trading Alert, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Homebuilder ETF’s Hope This Is A Bottom (XHB, ITB)

There was another positive number on new home sales data for the month of February.  It looks like new home sales came in UP 4.7% at 337,000 annualized units.  The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE: XHB) is up 7% at $11.51 and the iShares Dow Jones US Construction ETF (NYSE: ITB) is up over 7% at $9.54.

This is much better than the  estimates of about 300,000 annualized units.  The Commerce Department also signaled that the revision is still very negative compared to a year-over-year basis but the revision for January is now 322,000 annualized units from 309,000 annualized units that was originally reported.  These are better than expected, but they are still dismal compared with historic sales and the numbers are so low that you may wonder about the celebration.
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Posted on: March 25, 2009 – 9:20 am in ETF, Economy, Housing, Trading Alert, ,

Earnings Preview: Lennar (June 2007) (LEN, XHB, ITB)

Lennar Corp. (LEN-NYSE) reports earnings on Tuesday.  The company is expected to post a sharp drop-off after the company had already withdrawn guidance.  FirstCall has estimates at $0.05 EPS on very wide range with many expecting losses or gains; and the last revenue expectations seen were $2.575 Billion.

Unfortunately we have no real guidance out of the company and the sector itself is in disarray.  Finding a bull for the group right now would be difficult, and if you found him he’d probably answer to the name Dr. Pangloss.  About the only good news right now is that a contrarian can make a fortune IF he is right, and there has been so much negative news in the sector that any news that isn’t ghastly could get a "Less Bad Equals Good" reaction.

Shares of Lennar closed down 2.5% at $38.75 today and shares closed out 2006 at $52.11.  The SPDR Homebuilders ETF (XHB) closed down 1.89% and the iShares Homebuilders (ITB) closed down 1.8%.

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 25, 2007 – 3:39 pm in Earnings, Housing, , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 25, 2007)

DJIA                                  13,352.05; (-8.21; -0.06%)
S&P500                            1,497.74 (-4.82; -0.32%)
NASDAQ                          2,577.08; (-11.88; -0.46%)
10YR-Bond                     5.078%; -0.06%
NYSE Volume                3,098,570,000
NASDAQ Volume          2,014,019,000

Once again, we have dropped most of the ‘leveraged’ and ‘Short’ or ‘Ultra-Short’ ETF’s.  The idea is to show which sectors were the winners and losers.  We also screen out if too many ETF’s tied to the same sector are showing up so we can show the winners and losers by groups rather than solely be the numbers.  Here are today’s:

ETF WINNERS:
iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (EWT)                             +0.83%
PowerShares Dynamic Insurance (PIC)                    +0.63%
Ultra Utilities ProShares (UPW)                                   +0.61%
Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU)                              +0.57%
Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (BLV)                       +0.50%
iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury (TLT)                +0.48%
PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ)       +0.46%
iShares S&P Global Cons Discretionary (RXI)          +0.45%
PowerShares Dynamic Deep Value    (PVM)             +0.47%

ETF LOSERS:
iShares MSCI Mexico Index (EWW)                             -1.95%
PowerShares DB Silver (DBS)                                     -1.9%
SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services(XES) -1.87%
SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB)                                 -1.86%
iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB)    -1.79%
DJ Wilshire REIT ETF (RWR)                                        -1.71%
HealthShares European Drugs (HRJ)                         -1.70%
iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index (ILF)                   -1.7%
iShares MSCI Malaysia Index (EWM)                             -1.66%
KBW Capital Markets ETF    (KCE)                                 -1.65%
First Trust Value Line Equity Allc Index (FVI)                 -1.6%

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 25, 2007 – 3:19 pm in ETF, HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF Plays on Rates (TLT, ITB, IEF); 10-Year Rates At 10-Month Highs

ETF Tickers: TLT, ITB, IEF

Some stock traders claim to be spooked by the thought of higher rates.  The two consecutive negative days were partially on this, but today was the mark to watch.  The 10-Year US Treasury Note just crossed back over 5.00% for the first time since August 2006.  The yield is currently at $5.04% to 5.05%, up 0.08% from last night.

An ETF that tracks the intermediate to longer-term maturities is the iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT), and this is down 0.8% at $84.67.  Its stated ETF price moves inversely with the direction or change of interest rates, so as rates rise its price falls and vice versa. The slightly shorter time period ETF with a lower duration is the iShares Lehman 7-10 Year Treasury (IEF), and it is trading down 0.5% at$80.61 this morning.

If anyone is still hoping for a rate cut from Bernanke & Co., the markets are beating an entirely different drum.  The 10-year note is also the key for mortgage rates, and outside of the negative news still coming out of housing stocks would help explain the 5% drop in the homebuilder stocks.  The ETF that tracks homebuilders is the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB), and its shares are down again today by more than 1.5% at$35.32 and are now down about 5% from the close on Monday.  In fact, average mortgage rates have climbed 0.14% this week.

Rates are dragging on stocks this morning, but not as much as earlier this week.  After 45 minutes of trading, here’s where we stand today:
DJIA            13,439.42; -26.25 (-0.2%)
S&P500      1,512.52; -4.86 (-0.3%)
NASDAQ    2,580.09; -7.09 (-0.27%)

Jon C. Ogg
June 7, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 7, 2007 – 9:26 am in ETF, Economy, , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 5, 2007)

ETF Tickers: SRS, SDP, SSG, SJH, SZK, SDD, SKK, SKF, SDS, SCC, SJL, FXI, PGJ, HRD, IIH, RWR, ICF, ITB, EZA, UNG

What’s an easy way to tell when the market had a pretty bad hair day, other than looking at the ticker tape?  Seeing that all of the ETF winners for the day are listed as the UltraShort "Whatever" ProShares……they are the inverse move of an any underlying index, so when they are up the index or the market is down.  The top 12 performers today were all in that category. Some of these are leveraged to their index, not it doesn’t mean the worst performers are the underlying index per se.

UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (SRS) 3.52%   
UltraShort Utilities ProShares (SDP) 3.13%   
UltraShort Semiconductor ProShares (SSG) 2.09%
UltraShort Russell2000 Value ProShares (SJH) 1.66%
UltraShort Consumer Goods ProShares (SZK) 1.59%
UltraShort SmallCap600 ProShares (SDD) 1.49%
UltraShort Russell2000 Growth ProShares (SKK) 1.41%   
UltraShort Financials ProShares    (SKF) 1.36%
UltraShort S&P500 ProShares (SDS) 1.35%
UltraShort Consumer Services ProShares (SCC) 1.24%
UltraShort Russell MidCap Val ProShares    (SJL) 1.20%   
UltraShort Russell2000 ProShares (TWM) 1.06%

Other non-short ETF winners:
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) +1.02%
PowerShares Gldn Dragon Halter USX China (PGJ) +0.80%
HealthShares Cardiology    (HRD) +0.7%

Worse non-Ultra funds today:
Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (IIH) -1.82%
DJ Wilshire REIT ETF (RWR) -1.76%
iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors (ICF) -1.76%   
iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB) -1.64%
iShares MSCI South Africa Index    (EZA) -1.60%
United States Natural Gas (UNG)    -1.55%

Today was more of a Bernake playing hankie with words than it was China.  Tomorrow’s another day.

DJIA                       13,595.46; -80.86 (0.59%)
NASDAQ               2,611.23; -7.06 (0.27%)
S&P500                1,530.95; -8.23 (0.53%)
10YR-Bond          4.9760%; +0.0470%
NYSE Volume      2,884,657,000
NASDAQ Volume 2,233,690,000

Jon C. Ogg
June 5, 2007

Posted on: June 5, 2007 – 3:38 pm in ETF, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETF Winners & Losers (June 4, 2007)

Stock Tickers: OIH, DBB, ITB, UVT, GWL, URE, DUG, EZA, HHK, FBT, INP, EWZ, PGJ, CHN

ETF WINNERS JUNE 4, 2007:
Oil Services HOLDRs (OIH)                                             $174.35; +2.7%
PowerShares DB Base Metals (DBB)                            $27.66; +2.6%
iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB)       $37.29; +1.6%
Ultra Russell2000 Value ProShares (UVT)                   $72.18; +1.28%
SPDR S&P World ex-US (GWL)                                       $33.65; +1.25%
Ultra Real Estate ProShares (URE)                                $62.52; +1.23%

ETF LOSERS JUNE 4, 2007:
UltraShort Oil & Gas ProShares (DUG)                         $48.90; -2.4%
iShares MSCI South Africa Index    (EZA)                       $128.25; -1.6%
HealthShares Cancer (HHK)                                            $29.25; -1.05%
First Trust AMEX Biotech Index (FBT)                              $25.52; -1.05%
iPath MSCI India Index ETN (INP)                                    $60.54; -1.03%
iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ)                                     $60.65; -0.90%

 

DJIA                        13,676.32; +8.21 (0.06%)
NASDAQ                2,618.29; +4.37 (0.17%)
S&P500                 1,539.18; +2.84 (0.18%)
10YR Bond            4.9290%; -0.0270%
NYSE Volume       2,713,846,000
NASDAQ Volume  1,947,730,000   

If you can believe it, the PowerShares Golden Dragon-China (PGJ) only fell 0.04% on 278,000 shares, not bad for a day that Shanghai fell 8%.  Even the closed-end fund The China Fund Inc. (CHN) only saw a 0.33% drop.

Please note that is you see other winning or losing ETF’s that are the same category as one of the winners and losers that is not in here, it is because we try to default to the most liquid ETF that is means to track any given sector.

Today the main winners were led by oil & gas trackers in various segments in the oil patch: United States Natural Gas (UNG) 3.7%, iShares Dow Jones US Oil & Gas Ex Index (IEO) 2.5%, Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (DIG) 2.45%, iShares Dow Jones US Oil Equipment Index  (IEZ) 2.35%, SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services (XES), SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Prod (XOP) 2.2%, Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) 1.5%.

After seeing how many oil and energy ETF’s are on the market we would formally like to ask ETF managers not to open up any more oil and gas variations of ETF’s.

Jon C. Ogg
June 4, 2007

Posted on: June 4, 2007 – 3:44 pm in ETF, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,