Five ETFs to Watch This Week

Here are five ETFs to watch this week.

iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund(DVY) Although the wild market action has been unsettling, adopting a reactionary investing investment strategy isn't appropriate. Rather than trying to game every market fluctuation, long-term investors should focus on building up their defense with a solid collection of well-balanced, diversified products. DVY, for instance allows investors to target the equity markets from a relatively safe perspective by targeting large dividend-paying firms. Over the most recent three-month period, DVY's strength has shone through. The fund has managed to outpace broad market ETF like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF(SPY) and SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF(DIA) comfortably. PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish Fund(UUP) Macro-economic turmoil has continued to drive investors into the shelter of defensive asset classes. Amidst this flight to safety, the U.S. dollar has taken the lead, helping UUP ascend to impressive gains. Throughout September, this fund has managed to stick to a steep upward path, breaking through its 200-day moving average. This is the first time that this level has been breached since the closing months of 2010. It will be interesting to see if wearied investors continue to pile into the greenback as we head into the final week of September. If so, UUP could be on track to recover a substantial portion of its 2011 losses. iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund(TLT) Similar to the U.S. dollar, long-term U.S. Treasuries have become a darling among fearful investors. As investors clamored for ways to protect themselves from resounding global turbulence, shares of TLT managed to ascend higher. Towards the end of last week, the fund managed to recover to all-time highs it enjoyed in late 2008. In the days ahead, it will be interesting to see what is in store for TLT. Many of the same factors that have defined this choppy spurt of market action continue to be in play. Fearful investors will likely continue to seek out ways to protect themselves. iShares MSCI France Index Fund(EWQ) The France ETF faced heavy pressure last week as the euro-zone crisis continued to dominate headlines. French banks faced particularly rough headwinds as their strength was called into question. Financials represent over 15% of EWQ's portfolio and companies including BNP Paribas Societe Generale can be found listed among the fund's top 15 holdings. GThe EU continues to be a troublesome region. While funds like EWQ should be exciting to watch in the days ahead, I do not encourage conservative investors to try their luck here.

iShares Gold Trust(IAU)

Although it has typically proven to be a popular destination for fearful investors, gold struggled to find footing over the past few days. Thanks in large part to the three-day slide it witnessed during the second half of the week IAU stumbled back to levels last seen at the start of August. The combination of tumbling gold prices and downward market action wreaked havoc on gold miners as well. Small, junior miners performed particularly poorly. The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF(GDXJ)(GDXJ) is currently trading at 2011 lows. Readers Also Like: >>Cramer: Time to be a Bull? Not Yet>>Wall Street Braces for Brutal Earnings Season >To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints