“The metals and mining industry group has been a market leader during the past year, with the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining exchange-traded fund soaring more than 117% during the prior 52 weeks. Comparatively, the S&P 500 index has rallied some 48% during the same time frame. What’s more, XME has maintained its momentum into 2010, advancing more than 9% since the start of the year,” Joseph Hargett Reports From Forbes.

Hargett goes on to say, “From a technical perspective, SPDR S&P Metals and Mining (XME) is currently consolidating into support at the 55 level as it waits for support at its rising 10-week and 20-week moving averages to catch up. From a longer-term perspective, the ETF also has support at its 10-month moving average trailing just behind the shares. This trendline provided a key floor for the fund following the market’s broad pullback in early February.”

“Despite its impressive performance, investors remain extremely bearish on the metals and mining sector. For instance, XME’s Schaeffer’s put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 2.47 indicates that puts more than double calls among options with less than three months until expiration. This ratio also ranks above 87% of all such readings taken during the past year. What’s more, less than half of the 290 ratings on metals and mining stocks are “buys” or better. As XME continues its run higher, these bears could be forced to abandon their losing positions, thus resulting in additional fuel for the rally,” Hargett Reports.

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Here are some more details on the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF (XME) including the holdings within the ETF below:

The investment (XME) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the performance of an index derived from the metals and mining segment of a U.S. total market composite index. The fund uses a passive management strategy designed to track the total return performance of the S&P Metals & Mining Select Industry index. The index represents the metals and mining sub-industry portion of the S&P TMI. The fund is nondiversified.

NYSE:XME