Brady, Manning And 4 ETFs For The Super Bowl

It's almost here. America's biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl, comes our way on Sunday and Super Bowl XLVI from Indianapolis is an intriguing rematch of the 2008 that saw the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots. Fans of variety may not be bullish on Sunday's game. It will be the third appearance in the big game since 2001 for the Giants and the fifth since 2002 for the Patriots. However, football history buffs might love this match up because the winner will tie the Green Bay Packers for fourth on the all-time Super Bowl wins list with four. Investors might want to root for the Giants. As Bespoke Investment Group noted, the S&P 500's post-Super Bowl returns have averaged 10.64% with positive returns 79% of the time. Those numbers drop to a gain of only 3.44% with positive returns 62% of the time when an AFC team wins, according to Bespoke. Then again, the last time the Giants won, 2008, the market plunged over 35%. Of course, 2002 when the Pats won was no peach either. The S&P 500 tumbled 21.6%, Bespoke noted. We're not telling you what team to root for on Sunday, but these ETFs are valid Super Bowl plays and may be winners after the big game, too. Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR XLP Not the most exciting ETF on the block, XLP is slightly in the red to start 2012 after a stellar 2011 that saw the fund benefit from the risk off trade. XLP's top-10 holdings alone offer a treasure trove of big Super Bowl advertisers, Coca-Cola KOL and PepsiCo PEP included. Beyond that, those hosting Super Bowl parties will be frequenting places like Costco COST and Wal-Mart WMT and probably picking up some Kraft KFT and Generals Mills products GIS. All the dishes and glasses will need to be washed with products made by Procter & Gamble PG or Colgate Palmolive CL. So it can be said XLP is THE Super Bowl ETF. Global X Auto ETF VROM Super Bowl commercials cost $3.5 million for 30-second spot and according to Screen Rant, plenty of auto companies have ponied up to shop their wares on Sunday and that's par for the course for any Super Bowl. Super Bowl or not, VROM is been a stout performer this year, Friday's jobs report has bolstered the strength of the ETF's chart and there's legitimate reason to evaluate the ETF now rather than later. iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund EWY Emerging markets ETFs have gotten their groove back in 2012 and the iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund is no exception as the fund is up more than 12% year-to-date. So how is an ETF tracking South Korea a legitimate Super Bowl play? Well, Samsung will be a Super Bowl advertiser and some folks will be watching the game on Samsung TVs. That stock represents almost 20% of the ETF's weight. EWY's chart is strong and a run back to $65-$66 looks like a real possibility. Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR XLY Another ETF that has been getting a lift from the spate of decent/less bad U.S. economic data, XLY is every bit the big Super Bowl play as its staples counterpart. Comcast CMCSA is the majority owner of NBC, the network broadcasting the game. That stock is XLY's second-largest holding. McDonald's MCD and Ford F, two more XLY top-10 holdings, would figure to be logical Super Bowl advertisers while Nike NKE, XLY's eighth-largest holding, is a Super Bowl stock to be sure. And the good news is State Street STT, whose State Street Global Advisors unit sponsors the SPDRs family of ETFs, announced this week that it is lowering the expense ratios on the nine Select Sector SPDRs ETFs to 0.18%. That includes and XLY and XLP.