Top and Flop ETFs of Last Week

Last week, U.S. stocks were mostly in the green. Among the top ETFs, investors saw SPY gaining about 3.2%, DIA adding about 3.4% and QQQ move higher by 3.0%. Talks of likely improvement in U.S.-Sino trade relation played a great role in pushing the market higher.

Let’s take a look at which ETFs benefited and lost the most.

Best ETFs

iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (TUR) – Up 10.6%

Trump cautioned Turkey of economic wreckage if its army attacks Kurds in Syria. However, Trump and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan later conversed on the phone to sort out differences, boosting the lira and Turkish equities. Plus, news of likely U.S.-China trade resolution boosted the global stocks.

United States Natural Gas (UNG) – Up 8.9%

Natural gas prices jumped on projections of cooler-than-expected temperatures in the second half of January. Heating demand has averaged about 45 Bcf/d in January, against 41 Bcf/d in December and 37 Bcf/d in November. This has contributed to the price gains in natural gas used for electricity (read: Natural Gas ETFs Jump on Colder-Than-Normal Weather Forecast).

Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB) – Up 7.8%

Steepening of the U.S. treasury yield curve amid dovish Fed comments and an improving U.S. economy has proven to be a boon to banking stocks. Plus, upbeat earnings releases from some industry biggies like Citi C, Goldman GS and BofA BAC helped the fund.

Global X MSCI China Health Care ETF (CHIH) – Up 7.1%

Chinese biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries are thriving with opportunities right now. The sector has become venture capital’s darling. According to health-care information company IQVIA, China was the world's second-largest national pharmaceutical market in 2017 — worth $122.6 billion — with the potential to become a $145-$175 billion market by 2022, per an article published on CNBC (read: Explore China's Booming Biopharma Space With This New ETF).

Now, there is heightened speculation that the United States and China are moving toward a possible trade deal. This along with news of a large-scale tax cut in the biggest emerging market economy boosted the fund last week (read: U.S., China to Reach a Trade Deal? ETF Areas to Gain).

Worst ETFs

ETFMG Prime Junior Silver ETF (SILJ) – Down 7.5%

Silver prices declined in the past week as it lacked both safe-haven demand as well as the need as an industrial metal. Since markets gained materially, there has been hardly any demand for safe-haven asset, while growing concerns about global growth cut the need for industrial metal. Both factors weighed on SILJ.

Market Vectors Indian Rupee/USD ETN (INR) – Down 7.1%

Moderate increase in the greenback and an uptick in WTI crude last week made India’s currency a loser last week. This is because the country is a huge importer of crude.

ALPS Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF (SGDJ) – Down 5.4%

Amid declining demand of the safe-haven assets, gold prices dived last week and so did gold miner ETFs.

ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures (VIXY) – Down 5.8%

The S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index measures the movements of a combination of VIX futures and is designed to track changes in the expectation for one month in the future. Since the broader markets were steady last week, this volatility ETF lost materially.

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SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research Reports
 
Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB): ETF Research Reports
 
iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (TUR): ETF Research Reports
 
Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports
 
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports
 
MKT VEC-RUPEE (INR): ETF Research Reports
 
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