ETF News Update: A Day of Major Stock Market Misses (GLD, UUP, USO, GS)

It was a day of market misses for ETFs and stocks in world markets as economic and employment reports disappointed and missed the targets set down by the “experts.” 

December Housing Starts came in at 529k versus 550k expected and a prior reading of 553k, indicating ongoing weakness in the all important housing sector. 

On the earnings front, significant misses have been reported this week by Bank of New York, (BK) Citi,  and Delta Airlines (DAL) along with Goldman Sachs and American Express forecasting earnings that disappointed investors, as well. 

On the upside, Apple AAPL and IBM hit home runs, indicating that tech is becoming an essential item in modern day life (who could live without texting or their iPhone?) while Wells Fargo (NYSE:Arca WFC) clocked a 20% rise in profits and was rewarded with a lowered rating from Standard and Poors. 

The dollar UUP slid to a two month low against the Euro while oil (NYSE:Arca USO) and gold GLD declined as President Obama welcomed the leader of the next largest economy (fourth quarter growth 9.8%) in the world, Chinese President Hu Jintao, to the United States.  (I would like to be a fly on the wall at those meetings.) 

Tomorrow's another big day of economic and earnings reports with unemployment, home sales, leading economic indicators, Philly Fed on the economic front and Morgan Stanley MS  Advanced Micro Devices AMD and the 900 pound gorilla, Google (NasdaqGS: Goog) on the earnings front. 

Today's market decline served to take out some, but certainly not all of the froth we've seen in recent weeks, and Wall Street Sector Selector remains in “yellow flag” status, expecting choppy prices ahead.

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Disclosure: Wall Street Sector Selector trades a wide range of exchange traded funds and positions can change at any time.  No positions in stocks or etfs mentioned.