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Top-Performing ETFs of the Worst September Since 2011

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After a superb August, September turned gloomy for Wall Street. This is especially true given the month’s ill-famed seasonality in the equity market.  According to moneychimp.com, a consensus carried out from 1950 to 2019 has revealed that September ended up offering positive returns in 32 years and negative returns in 38 years, with an average return of negative 0.57%, which is worse than any month.

Doubts over a faster rollout of coronavirus vaccines, rising COVID-19 cases in the United States and Europe, talks of major banks engaging in transferring illicit funds, profit booking on tech stocks and pre-election volatility in the United States have spelt trouble for the markets.

Each of the key indexes —  the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow — recorded their worst September since 2011.The S&P 500 witnessed its first monthly loss since March. Overall, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones were down respectively about 4.1%, 4.5% and 3% in September.

However, some investing areas benefited in the month and braved the selloffs. Below we highlight those winners.

Invesco Solar ETF (TAN - Free Report) ) – Up 9.9%

Growing consumer electric vehicle adoption, an increase in charging stations by U.S. states, increased solar-storage installations have acted as a tailwind for the clean energy sector. The space is also set to benefit from the increasing deployment of clean energy in Europe and China. Among the broader clean energy space, solar stocks are going through the roof.

Barclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETN ) – Up 9.4%

The underlying Barclays Inverse US Treasury Futures Composite Index employs a strategy that tracks the sum of the returns of periodically rebalanced short positions in equal face values of each of the 2-year, 5-year, 10-year, long-bond and ultra-long U.S. Treasury futures contracts.

Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO - Free Report)  – Up 8.7%

September was also a smashing month with cloud database company Snowflake’s IPO. The company recorded the biggest software IPO of all time. In any case, the IPO market is very heathy this year despite the pandemic. The year started with a surge in biotech IPOs (read: Invest in Hottest IPOs With These ETFs).

Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF (BBP - Free Report)  – Up 7.7%

Research efforts on coronavirus vaccines, oncology and neurological conditions have made the fund a winner this year. Many small-cap players are in focus for the upcoming clinical readouts.

WisdomTree Japan Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund (DXJS - Free Report) ) – Up 7.3%

Japan’s investing backdrop was under careful watch in the month of September as long-standing prime minister Shinzo Abe stepped down. His policies known as “Abenomics” contributed a great deal in the past to Japan’s economic reform. New prime minister Yoshihide Suga’s appointment has been market-friendly. As another positive, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought stakes worth $6 billion in five Japanese trading companies. Both factors aided Japan investing.

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