A Look Ahead: Next Week's ETFs to Watch

Good news: U.S. stocks shrugged off troublesome out of Europe Thursday after the close to focus on earnings reports, including a stellar one from Google GOOG. Should that trend continue, the rally will continue to legitimize itself and send stocks and other riskier assets into year-end in groovy fashion. Of course, international headline risk cannot be diminished simply because it is far from extinct. Fingers crossed, but perhaps this week is a sign that traders and investors are finally ready to focus on U.S. economic data and the abundance of earnings reports that are coming out over the next two weeks. With that, here are some ETFs that will certainly be in play next week. Global X Copper Miners ETF COPX: Copper miners and the ETFs that track them have rallied hard and fast recently, but this is a high-beta that can extend gains (or losses) rather quickly. If COPX can clear its 50-day moving average around $14.25, that would be a bullish sign, but the reason to watch COPX next week is more than technical. Freepot-McMoRan FCX reports earnings on Wednesday. iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment Index Fund IEZ: Halliburton HAL on Monday and Schlumberger SLB on Friday bookend the earnings next week from IEZ constituents. This is another high-beta ETF that has soared in a tight time frame, but also another one that has the potential and the catalysts with which to extend those gains. Financial Select Sector SPDR XLF: There is an avalanche of bank earnings next week that have the potential to not only determine the fate of this downtrodden ETF, but of the rally at large. If XLF can muster consecutive strong-volume closes above $13, that could be a bullish sign. PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio PBJ: The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio isn't the most volatile ETF out there, but that's a good thing in this environment. After a solid week, PBJ is within pennies of touching its 200-day moving average. Earnings reports from Coca-Cola KO and McDonald's MCD could push the ETF above that important technical area.