XRO Sheds Energy & Tech for Finance & Medical

The Claymore/Zacks Sector Rotation ETF (XRO) recently rebalanced the fund’s holdings, on April 2^nd.  The ETF is based on the Zacks Sector Rotation Index, which uses a quantitative methodology to overweight sectors with “potentially superior risk-return profiles”.  The sector allocation is done on a quarterly basis.

In the most recent rebalancing, there was a shift away from Technology and Computers, and Energy, and new allocations in the Finance and Medical sectors.  Allocations have also been also been increased in Retail/Wholesale, and reduced in Business Services, Industrial Products, and Aerospace.  Listed below are the current allocations of the fund, and the increase or decrease compared to the last rebalancing that took play on January 5^th.

Medical:  36.3%, up from 0%

Retail/Wholesale:  32.1%, up from 18.6%

Finance:  11.6%, up from 0%

Business Services:  7.9%, down from 13.5%

Consumer Discretionary:  6.0%, up from 5.4%

Industrial Products:  5.0%, down from 7.8%

Aerospace:  0.7%, down from 5.8%

Consumer Staples:  0.3%, up from 0%

Autos/Trucks:  0%, down from 0.5%

Basic Materials:  0%, down from 5.1%

Computer & Technology: 0%, down from 25%

Construction:  0%, unchanged

Conglomerates:  0%, unchanged

Energy:  0%, down from 10.4%

Transportation:  0%, down from 7.9%

Utilities:  0%, unchanged.

The fund is currently comprised of 100 companies, and has a price to earnings ratio of 13.0.  The fee structure is capped at 60 basis points, and currently has total managed assets of around $28.8 million trading on the NYSE Arca exchange.

XLF Breaks Resistance on High Volume

Financials surged Thursday on results from Wells Fargo (WFC) that were better than expected, sending the whole sector higher. The financial ETF (XLF) broke through previous resistance levels, on the heaviest volume in 10 sessions. Wells Fargo finished the day up more than 31%, Bank of America (BAC) closed up 35%, and Citigroup (C) closed up 12%.

Barclays (BCS) announced the sale of its iShares unit to CVC Capital Partners, a private equity group for $4.4 billion.