A Look Ahead: Next Week's ETFs to Watch

A decent September jobs report not withstanding, stocks finished the week on a down note after Fitch Ratings took the ax to its debt ratings on Italy and Spain. No surprise there, but Moody's Investors Service made matters worse by placing Belgium's Aa1 local and foreign currency government bond ratings placed on review for possible downgrade. That's not the way to head into next week, but it's nothing if not familiar. In other words, Europe remains a significant challenge. Yes, the week that was was pretty good, but it appears those that got too excited too fast about the bounce may have to deal with more declines. With that, here are next week's ETFs to watch. ProShares UltraShort Europe EPV: We could just one by one and say the iShares MSCI Italy Index Fund EPI, the iShares Spain Index Fund EWP, the iShares Belgium Investable Market Index Fund EWK and the Vanguard MSCI Europe ETF VGK are all worth watching next week. Or we could kill four birds with one stone and tell you to watch EPV. Direxion Daily Developed Markets Bear 3X Shares DPK: Not to be too brief, but see above. Buy DPK on a break above resistance at $45. Global X Aluminum ETF ALUM: Dow component Alcoa AA steps into the earnings confessional Tuesday after the bell. Alcoa's reports rarely move the Dow, but it could put ALUM into play. This ETF is in trouble if support at $8.50 breaks. Financial Select Sector SPDR XLF: JPMorgan Chase JPM reports earnings on Thursday and that starts the avalanche of bank earnings over the next couple of weeks. Not that we expect any earth-shattering positive surprises here. Maybe the ProShares UltraShort Financial SKF is the better bet. Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR XLP: Staples are still kind of sort of defensive and PepsiCo PEP, the world's second-largest soft-drink maker, reports earnings before the bell on Wednesday. XLP would be more attractive with a breakout above $30.50.