3 Reasons to Watch the Leisure & Entertainment ETF

November 20th at 1:00am by Tom Lydon

The U.S. recession has many Americans feeling down in the dumps. Small surprise, then, that the leisure and entertainment exchange traded fund (ETF) has gained 39% year-to-date as we look for small escapes.

Three reasons the fund could continue to move as we enter into the thick of the holiday season:

First, the Associated Press recently announced that Viacom (NYSE: VIA) won exclusive rights to air “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” on its MTV and BET cable networks starting in 2011. The movie depicting the life of Michael Jackson has already drawn an astonishing amount of revenue. (More on leisure & entertainment).

Secondly, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is expected to release a new version of A Christmas Carol, which is expected to gross nearly $200 million. (Disney’s change of pace). Additionally, in more good box-office news today, Sony reported that 2012 collected $5 million more overseas than it estimated yesterday, giving the disaster flick a final worldwide weekend gross of $230.4 million, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Lastly, it appears that consumers are starting travel and book trips more, but are still counting their pennies. This is evident in the performance of Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN), which reported third-quarter sales and profits which topped analysts expectations and sent the company’s stock price to a nine-year high. Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) also reported earnings rose 23% on increases in car and hotel revenue in the third quarter.

A good way to play this is through the PowerShares Dynamic Leisure & Entertainment (NYSEArca:PEJ), which is up 39% year-to-date; VIA is 5.2%; DIS is 4.8%; PCLN is 5%.

For more stories on leisure and entertainment, visit our leisure and entertainment category.