Wall Street put up a mixed show in the holiday-shortened last week, with the S&P 500 (up 1.3%), the Dow Jones (up 1.9%) and the Nasdaq Composite (up 0.6%) remaining in positive territory and the Russell 2000 (down 0.8%) being in the red.

Recessionary fears were rife in the United States last week. This is especially true given that OPEC+ announced a surprise output early last week. This, in turn, triggered chances of further price inflation worldwide, which may result in further interest rate hikes in various economies like the United States. Such relentless rate hikes may tip economies into a slowdown or recession.

Meanwhile, the ISM Manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 in March 2023, the lowest since May 2020, and compared to 47.7 in February and a consensus of 47.5, indicating that rising interest rates and growing recession fears have started impacting businesses adversely.

The reading marked the fifth straight month of shrinkage in factory activity, as companies continue to slow output to keep pace with falling demand for the first half of 2023 and prepare for growth in the late summer/early fall period, per tradingeconomics.

As far as U.S. treasury yields are concerned, the benchmark U.S. treasury yields ended the week at 3.39% on Apr 7, while it started the week at 3.35% and hit a low of 3.30%. Against this backdrop, below, we highlight a few ETFs that gained meaningfully last week.

ETFs in Focus

iPatha.B Coffee Subindex TR ETN – Up 8.5%

Coffee prices have rebounded lately as global supply has fallen short of demand for the third year. As a result, majority of the growers are resorting to more of “consignment sales” rather than the “outright sale” of the beans. Through consignment sales, growers are loading their coffee ouput, with the coffee curers anticipating prices to go up in the days ahead.

ED&F Man Commodities, which is one of the world's leading providers and traders of soft commodities, has estimated that there could be a 3.8-million bag shortage for the next season, with Robusta beans likely to record a substantial shortfall, per CNBC. The report from ED&F Man also expects tight prices especially within the period from August 2023 to 2024.

US Brent Oil (BNO Quick QuoteBNO - Free Report) – Up 8.3%

Oil prices remain in a sweet spot as OPEC+ producers agreed to a surprise oil output cut in last-to-last Sunday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, decided to cut production targets by about 1.16 million barrels per day from May. The cut will run until the end of 2023. The output cut is in addition to the 2 million barrels per day cut announced last October by the oil cartel (read: Sector ETFs to Benefit/Lose on Surprise OPEC+ Output Cut).

Teucrium Sugar (CANE Quick QuoteCANE - Free Report) – Up 8.1%

Sugar prices jumped to a fresh six-year high in New York as the likelihood of limited Indian exports contributed to worries about tight global supplies. Concerns about slower production in India and lackluster supplies from other countries, including Pakistan and Thailand, led to supply-crunch worries. Prices for sugar have also been supported by the prospect of an oil price rally, as it could lead Brazilian and Indian mills to divert more cane to ethanol production.

KraneShares CICC China 5G and Semiconductor ETF (KFVG Quick QuoteKFVG - Free Report) – Up 7.5%

The fund tracks the performance of companies engaged in the 5G and semiconductor-related businesses, including 5G equipment, semiconductors, electronic components and big data centers.

China’s Internet companies are striving to develop their own versions of ChatGPT-style services amid the global hype around the conversational AI chatbot. Moreover, China has wrapped up its more than two-year-long crackdown on the technology sector. Chinese tech companies may be incentivized to remain in a winning position at the global level.