If buying when there is blood in the streets really works, and history shows that it has on numerous occasions, then the energy sector is currently worth a gander.
The energy sector was the only one of the 10 S&P 500 sectors to decline last month, meaning the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE) was the only one of the nine sector SPDR ETFs to end November in the red. XLE, the largest equity-based energy ETF, lost nearly 9% in November while the S&P 500 jumped 4.4%.
With some market observers saying oil futures could slide to $55 per barrel (or further), making bullish calls on XLE and energy stocks has not exactly been the order of the day, but some analysts see opportunity with the ETF.
AltaVista Research, which researches close to 900 ETFs, has an overweight rating on XLE, making the goliath energy fund the only one of the nine sector SPDRs AltaVista currently rates as overweight.
AltaVista’s overweight rating implies above average appreciation potential. “Typically, funds in this category consist of stocks trading at attractive valuations and/or having above-average fundamentals,” according to AltaVista.
That view likely counters that many investors have of XLE and energy stocks at a time when the ETF’s marquee holdings are sliding and the fund’s technical look dubious. Over the past month, Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) is the only of XLE’s top-10 holdings, a group that combines for over 60% of the ETF’s weight, that has traded higher. [A Critical Time for a Big Energy ETF]