U.S. equity exchange traded funds saw premarket gains vanish Wednesday following the previous session’s rally as banks snapped up three-year loans from the European Central Bank.
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) was down 0.3% before Wednesday’s opening bell.
“This is basically free money,” Jens-Oliver Niklasch, a strategist at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, said of the ECB lending program in a Bloomberg report. “The conditions are unbeatable. Everybody who can will try to get a piece of this cake.”
The latest sentiment data shows advisors grew more bullish in the latest week. Bulls rose to 48.4% from 45.3% last week, the highest reading since July, according to Investors Intelligence.
“It signals an overall optimistic outlook is still holding, even as the bulls express frustration over Europe,” the newsletter service said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, bears were unchanged at 30.5%. “The difference between the bulls and bears was +17.9%, up 3.1% from a week ago and back to the recent high spread since Oct,” Investors Intelligence said.
Here’s a look at the top ETF stories making the rounds online this morning:
- Van Eck plans ETF for Europe’s high-yield corporate debt market. [Reuters]
- Wings of ETF industry to be clipped in 2012. [Reuters]
- Top 10 precious metals ETFs. [The Street]
- Best ETFs of 2011. [Stock Traders Daily]
Shameless plugs:
- Bulls Like Silver ETFs Under $30 an Ounce. [ETF Trends]
- ETF Chart of the Day: Global Sector Funds. [ETF Trends]
Full disclosure: Tom Lydon’s clients own SPY.