Sector Wrap: Gold, Financial, Technology
Thursday, September 3, 5:09 PM ET

Leading the news this week are financials, gold and technology companies. Gold bugs have been clamoring for the yellow metal to push above $1000/ounce and this could be the week they get there. With the dollar weakening and investors looking for a safe haven, investors saw the the December contract reaching $998/ounce on Thursday as the thousand dollar goal seems to be a few trades away.

As gold has climbed higher this week, gold mining stocks have followed. The Market Vectors Gold Miner ETF (AMEX:GDX) is trading higher by over eleven percent this week, and has tacked on almost six percent so far today.

On the technology front, investors saw Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY) sell a stake in Skype to a group of investors led by private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners. Ebay will receive about $2 billion in exchange for 65% of the company. Also in the news was Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) mysterious invitation to select members of the media. Apple is hosting a media event next week and it's expected to release the latest updates to the iPod for the holiday shopping season.

The S&P Technology ETF (AMEX:XLK) is trading close to even this afternoon, but has taken a hit with the general markets this week.

And more good news for the US Treasury. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) hopes to join the ranks of JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) in paying back TARP funds. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bank hopes to pay back $20 billion of the $45 billion borrowed. Also making the news was the troubled business lender CIT. The CIT Group (NYSE:CIT) announced it will defer interest payments on some outstanding junior notes that was supposed to be paid on September 15th. The deferred interest will continue to accrue and compound, but its troubling news to say the least.

The Financial Select Sector ETF (AMEX:XLF) is trading up about one percent on Thursday afternoon, but has fallen more than five percent so far this week.