Notable ETF Movers of the Day 11/24: SPY, SMH, USO Higher; VXX, UNG, GLD Lower

• SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) up 1.23% to $119.91 and PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq:
  QQQQ) up 2.05% to $53.14. Normally a tepid ETF, the instrument has seen a little more volatility over the last few days on a slower holiday week. The ETF is seeing some upside today as consumers are earning and spending more, and jobless claims have dropped since last week.
  
  
• Semiconductor HOLDRs (NYSE: SMH) up 2.39% to $31.76. Being led higher today by Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR), who received price target boost at UBS from
  $35 to $38.50, while UBS maintained their Buy rating on the shares.
  ALTR is 3.9% higher this morning.
  Additionally, tech's as a whole are on the rise following a verdict that saw SAP (NYSE: SAP) awarding $1.3 billion to Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) in a case that saw TomorrowNow, a now defunct division of SAP, stealing technology and software from Oracle.
  
  
• United States Oil (NYSE: USO) up 2.32% to $35.76. Oil is on the rise following EIA showing a 1.03 million barrel increase in crude stores, 1.91 million barrel jump in gasoline reserves, and 541,000 chop of distillate inventories. The crude increase was above consensus estimates, but not enough to offset the over 7 million barrel drop reported last week.
  

• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN
  (NYSE: VXX) down 3.41% to $43.34. The ETF is giving a little back today following a 4.5% close higher yesterday, as unemployment claims and consumer sentiment numbers are enough to offset an 8.1% drop in new home sales for October.
  
  
• United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) down 0.75% to $5.99. Buying for nat gas has subsided as warmer-then-normal temps are expected on the northern East Coast and New England. The Midwest should see temps just about normal over the next week. A meteorologist from Weather Derivatives says that heating demand may drop as much as 7% from November 30 through December 4, 2010.
  
  
• SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) down 0.24% to $134.09. Investors are a little more "risk-hungry" today as positive economic data, as well as earnings from Deere and Tiffany, are leading markets higher. December 10 contracts are 0.3% lower today, to $1373.2/ounce on the Comex.

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