Airline stocks have been stellar performers this year. Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) has surged 35.6%. United Continental (NYSE: UAL) is up 23.3%.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) is up a jaw-dropping 51% while the new American Airlines (NasdaqGS: AAL), the combination of US Airways and the not-far-removed from bankruptcy American, is up 52%.
Those returns have been pivotal in lifting the iShares Transportation Average ETF (NYSEArca: IYT) and the SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (NYSEArca: XTN). The performance of airline stocks this year has also made ETF investors long for the days when airline ETFs were available.
“The Guggenheim ETF, which had FAA as its ticker — think Federal Aviation Administration — closed right in the middle of a 151 percent tear in airline stocks over two and half years. Such a rally inevitably got more investors interested in the notoriously cyclical industry,” writes Eric Balchunas for Bloomberg.
Investors craving airline exposure via ETFs have been forced to turn to IYT and XTN, which feature airline weights of 14% and 24.3%, respectively. There is another option that also investors leverage to a potential rebound in the moribund consumer discretionary sector: The PowerShares DWA Consumer Cyclicals Momentum Portfolio (NYSEArca: PEZ).
PEZ differs from standard discretionary ETFs in that it is not home to some of the sector’s most familiar names such as Home Depot, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Ford (NYSE: F) McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) or cable providers. [Momentum Bounce for a Discretionary ETF]