Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Best-Performing ETF Areas of November

Read MoreHide Full Article

Wall Street was on a topsy-turvy ride in the month of November. While the start of the month was decent, renewed virus scare and lockdowns weighed on the broader market at the end. Overall, the S&P 500, the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 lost about 1.4%, 4.4%, 0.7% and 6.9% past month, respectively.

Nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe in late November once again stirred fears of the further spread of infections. While this raised chances of another wave of COVID-19 in other parts of the world, the finding of a new COVID-19 variant, namely Omicron, led to a massive crash in Wall Street in the month-end. 

Meanwhile, the Fed started QE tapering from November and corporate earnings came in upbeat. Holiday sales are forecast to come solid in 2021. Retail sales for the month of October was strong. Inflation data too was high due to supply chain issues. Oil prices staged a rally in November due to the prospect of higher demand but nosedived in the Thanksgiving week along with Wall Street on Omicron fears.

Against this backdrop, we highlight below a few investing areas that stood tall in November.

Carbon

iPath Series B Carbon ETN (GRN - Free Report) , Kraneshares European Carbon Allowance ETF (KEUA) and Kfa Global Carbon ETF (KRBN) advanced 26.1%, 22.7% and 16.7%, respectively, past month. A sharp rise in gas prices boosted the demand for carbon futures.

Semiconductors

The semiconductor space has been on a tear as the pandemic has bolstered the demand for chips, leading to the worst global shortage in many years. Corporate earnings from the likes of Nvidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) came in upbeat. The recent upsurge in the electric vehicle industry and increased awareness for clean energy also made the semiconductor industry an investors’ darling (read: 4 ETF Areas Near One-Year High With More Room for Growth).              

Vaneck Semiconductor ETF (SMH - Free Report) , PHLX Semiconductor iShares ETF (SOXX) and Nasdaq Semiconductor ETF First Trust (FTXL) and Dynamic Semiconductors Invesco ETF (PSI) gained 13.8%, 13.5%, 12.4% and 12%, respectively, past month.

Coffee

Coffee prices have been super-hot as a supply crunch from Brazil to Vietnam pushed coffee prices to a seven-year high. Inclement weather, shipping disruptions and rising fertilizer costs are weighing on supplies. iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN gained 13.8% past month.

The latest rally came after a decline in the certified stockpiles in Brazil. In addition, the early projections for Brazil’s 2022 crop indicate that yields will trail the nation’s last high-yielding cycle in 2020-21. This will prevent the rebuilding of stockpiles needed to weather the natural dip in the following harvest.

Gaming & Esports

Video gaming stocks have been in fine fettle. For 10 months, total consumer spending on gaming grew 12% year over year to $46.67 billion (per The NPD Group data). Market experts are optimistic about the strength that the video gaming industry is witnessing in the terms of sales growth despite tough year-over-year comparisons, highlighting the momentum in the space.

Renewed virus fears from late November also brightened the stay-at-home investing areas like video gaming. Vaneck Video Gaming and Esports ETF (ESPO - Free Report) advanced 7.6% (read: Bet on These Video Gaming ETFs to Ride the Surging Sales Trend).

Homebuilding

The broader housing sector appears in decent shape if we go by the recently released earnings reports. D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI - Free Report) , Beazer Homes (BZH) and Meritage Homes Corporation (MTH) beat overall while NVR Inc. (NVR) came up with mixed earnings (read: What Supply Chain Woes? Buy Housing ETFs On Earnings Strength).

Per the National Association of Realtors (NAR) report, there was a 0.8% sequential increase in existing homes sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.34 million units in October. The figure surpassed economists’ expectations of sales declining to 6.20 million units, per a Reuters poll.  Increasing for the second successive month, the metric saw the highest level since January. US Home Construction iShares ETF (ITB - Free Report) and S&P Homebuilders SPDR ETF (XHB - Free Report) gained 7.1% and 6.2% past month, respectively.

Published in