PowerShares, SPDR Make Nice Over ETF Tickers

Invesco's IVZ PowerShares ETF business, and State Street's STT SPDR ETF unit have settled a dispute stemming from PowerShares' use of similar tickers with its suite of nine small-cap sector ETFs introduced in 2010. SPDR claimed the tickers too closely resembled the tickers used for its Select SPDRs. For example, the large-cap energy fund is the Energy Select Sector SPDR XLE. The small-cap equivalent is the PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy ETF XLES. All nine of the PowerShares simply added"S" to the SPDR tickers, but that wasn't enough for the folks at SPDR. They filed a legal complaint a few months after the PowerShares funds made their April 2010 debuts, but PowerShares has decided to play nice and change the tickers. The changes, which will take place in late March, are as follows: PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary ETF XLYS New ticker: PSCD PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples ETF XLPS New ticker: PSCC PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy ETF XLES New ticker: PSCE PowerShares S&P SmallCap Financials ETF XLFS New ticker: PSCF PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care ETF XLVS New ticker: PSCH PowerShares S&P SmallCap Industrials ETF XLIS New ticker: PSCI PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology ETF XLKS New ticker: PSCT PowerShares S&P SmallCap Materials ETF XLBS New ticker: PSCM PowerShares S&P SmallCap Utilities & Telecom ETF XLUS New ticker: PSCU