Notable ETF Movers of the Day 02/16: (XRT) (USO) (TAN) Higher; (UNG) (VXX) (UUP) Lower

• SPDR S&P Retail (NYSE: XRT) up 1.71% to $50.09. Retail stocks are trading higher today, following a broad selloff yesterday on weak retail data, as investors are reponding to earnings from Office Max (NYSE: OMX) today, as well as a bid made for Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) by Trian Group (managed by Nelson Peltz). Peltz offered $55 - $60 for the shares of Family Dollar. Also, Office Max is seeing some downside today, but the office supply giant did top Q410 consensus estimates, though gave lukewarm Q111 and FY11 guidance.
  
  
• United States Oil (NYSE: USO) up 0.79% to $35.67. Making a move higher midday today, following reports that Iran has sent two warships to Syria. Crude prices popped about $1.00/barrel on the news.
  
  
• Claymore/MAC Global Solar Index ETF (NYSE: TAN) up 2.20% to $8.81. Research firm IHS made some comments on solars higher today. IHS believes that inventories will likely pop a little due to cuts in subsidies, but that the cuts will be limited to the first two or three months of the year.

• United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) down 1.82% to $5.31. Nat gas futures are lower today, ahead of EIA data tomorrow, as investors are chewing over warmer than normal temps that are sweeping across the U.S. Analysts are looking for a draw of 234 billion cubic feet last week.
  
  
• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSE: VXX) down 1.49% to $27.69. The CBOE VIX near-term index is lower today, as a few key M&A deals have been settled and strong earnings from companies like Deere (NYSE: DE), Orbitz (NYSE: OWW), and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) are leading their respective segments higher.
  AirGas (NYSE: ARG) and Air Products (NYSE: APD) finally called off their year-long M&A dance late yesterday, while sanofi-aventis (NYSE:
  SNY) and Genzyme (Nasdaq: GENZ) finally reached an agreement after weathering a few scuffles.
  
  
• PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP) down 0.60% to $22.47. Investors and traders are consolidating their positions amid stronger economic data today, as they await data from the FOMC meeting, expected later on this afternoon. Though the dollar was up early against the yen and euro, many wonder whether recent economic data will lead to more or less QE. Housing starts, of 596K, came in better than the consensus, and PPI also topped views.

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