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Fight the Spurt in Coronavirus Cases With These ETFs

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The coronavirus outbreak is continuing to aggravate in the United States as the number of new cases reported in the last two weeks was more than 915,000, which already exceeds the cases seen across the country in all of June, per a CNN report. Going on, the world’s largest economy has seen more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths for the second consecutive day. Raising concerns, some states are now short of hospital beds and testing labs are now flooded with samples.

In such a scenario, some U.S. leaders are admitting to the fact that some parts of the economy were reopened too soon, per a CNN report. In order to fight the rising number of cases, states like California, Texas, Florida, Los Angeles, San Diego and Oregon along with others have halted or rolled back the reopening process. California, for instance, is closing down all indoor restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums and bars, per a CNN report.

Considering the halting of the reopening process in around a dozen states in the United States, Goldman Sachs has revised its growth estimates downward for the U.S. economy for the third quarter of 2020, per a Bloomberg article. Going by the article, the economy is expected to see 25% growth in the third quarter in comparison to 33% predicted previously. Consequently, the U.S. economy is expected to fall 4.6% in 2020 as against 4.2% forecasted previously, per the article. In this regard, the economists commented that, “combination of tighter state restrictions and voluntary social distancing is already having a noticeable impact on economic activity” (according to the Bloomberg article).

Notably, the outbreak has caused an unprecedented collapse in economic activities as governments had to shut down commerce and implement social-distancing measures in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. The halting or rolling back of the reopening process may hurt investor sentiments and optimism around economic recovery in the near term.

Against this backdrop, let’s look at some ETFs that can help investors in sailing smoothly through the aggravating coronavirus situation:

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB - Free Report)

The race to introduce vaccine and treatment for coronavirus is opening up opportunities, making the biotech sector a prospective space for investments. From vaccine-related positive news to progress in development of cell therapies for the treatment of coronavirus, all kept the sector surging.

This fund seeks to provide exposure to U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical stocks and tracks the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index. Holding 207 securities, the fund has AUM of $10.20 billion, with an expense ratio of 0.47% (read: 3 Hot Sector ETFs to Tide Over the Coronavirus Crisis in Q3).

Global X Cloud Computing ETF (CLOU - Free Report)

In the current environment, people will try to maintain safe distancing and work remotely. Large employers like Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) have allowed their employees to work from home. Cloud computing has emerged as a key technology in the fight against coronavirus. It is supporting organizations in remotely processing a lot of information, developing and running key applications and services, and helping employees across the world collaborate while working. The work-from-home model has bumped up sales of PCs, laptops and other kinds of computer peripherals.

The fund seeks to invest in companies positioned to benefit from the increased adoption of cloud computing technology, including companies whose principal business is in offering computing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), managed server storage space and data center real estate investment trusts, and/or cloud and edge computing infrastructure and hardware. Holding 36 securities, the fund has AUM of $992.6 million, with an expense ratio of 0.68% (read: Top-Performing Technological ETFs Amid Coronavirus Crisis).

Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY - Free Report)

People now prefer staying indoors and shopping online for all essentials, especially food items. With online retail seeing a spurt in sales, it is benefiting companies like Amazon and Walmart (WMT) among others. In fact, Walmart recently teamed up with Shopify Inc. to open its Walmart Marketplace to sellers of the latter. Per a Total Retail article, e-commerce sales are expected to register more than a 20% rise this year as there is a jump in online traffic of first-time shoppers.

The fund seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price performance of the EQM Online Retail Index. The index is a globally-diverse basket of publicly-traded companies that obtain 70% or more of revenues from online or virtual sales. Holding 48 securities, the fund has AUM of $702.1 million with an expense ratio of 0.65% (read: Can Top ETFs of Q2 Continue to Rally in Q3?).

Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ - Free Report)

We are living in an era largely dominated by AI applications and technological advancements. Revolutionary technologies like AI, ML and IoT are fast changing the business landscape by expanding opportunities, growing revenues and enhancing efficiencies. The robotics market is flooded with opportunities as robots are being used for jobs such as sanitizing hospitals, homes and workplaces along with monitoring, surveying, handling, and delivering food and medicines.

The fund seeks to invest in companies that potentially stand to benefit from increased adoption and utilization of robotics and AI, including those involved with industrial robotics and automation, non-industrial robots, and autonomous vehicles. Holding 31 securities, the fund has AUM of $1.59 billion, with an expense ratio of 0.68% (read: Global Risk-On Sentiments Back on EU Deal: ETFs to Play).

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