Retail, Energy And Switzerland ETFs To Watch This Week

The markets traded in a narrow sideways range for the majority of last week as traders positioned for the holiday-shortened session. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY is sitting on a 13.75 percent total return this year that it will look to build on in the final month of 2014.

The week ahead features a hodgepodge of economic data that will be capped with non-farm payrolls on Friday. More importantly, investors will be focused on initial retail survey data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping sales.

Here are the key ETFs to watch for the week of Monday, December 1:

Market Vectors Retail ETF RTH

The holiday shopping season officially kicked off on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This week, action from key retailers such as Amazon.com, Inc and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will be a big focus for the markets.

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These stocks make up the top two holdings in RTH, which focuses on the top 25 largest U.S.-listed retail companies. This ETF made a substantial new high last week and will look to build on those gains in the first days of December.

Energy Select Sector SPDR XLE

The energy sector was dealt a blow last week when OPEC opted to keep crude oil production levels at the current pace. This sent worldwide oil prices tumbling on Friday and led to a broad-based sell off in energy-related stocks.

XLE is the large-cap benchmark for this major sector, which will face a critical test of its 2014 lows in the week ahead. Concerns over breakeven production costs for U.S.-based companies may play a role in further weakness as well.

iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped ETF EWL

The Swiss voted down a referendum over the weekend to bolster their central bank reserves of gold bullion. This could potentially impact EWL, which tracks 39 large- and mid-sized companies of this European nation.

Since hitting a low in mid-October, this ETF has been on a strong rebound and led most of its European counterparts in relative momentum. EWL is now in striking distance of piercing its 200-day moving average on the upside and adding to recent gains. The underlying stocks in EWL will be ones to watch this week as this political news spreads to the financial markets.