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Last week was upbeat for Wall Street with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones closing out the week at a record high. Moreover, both indexes logged four successive weeks of gains. The S&P 500 (up 1.37%), the Dow Jones (up 1.18%), the Nasdaq Composite (up 1.1%) and the Russell 2000 (up 0.9%) – all were in green last week (read: April Ushers in Super Gains for S&P 500: ETFs in Focus).
Solid U.S. economic data points and subdued U.S. treasury yields kept the markets charged-up last week. U.S. retail sales recorded the best gains in March in 10 months. Sales surged 9.8% sequentially in March 2021, easily beating market forecasts of a 5.9% increase. The $1,400 checks sent to consumers from mid-March and improvement in the weather after winter storms in Texas and some other parts of the South region in February led to this gain.
Another report revealed that first-time filings for unemployment insurance declined, with the Labor Department reporting 576,000 new jobless claims for the week ended Apr 10, down from the expectation for another 710,000 claim filings. Such upbeat data points have every reason to propagate into the stock market.
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETFs that topped last week.
The shipping ETF tracks the Capesize 5TC Index, Panamax 4TC Index & Supramax 6TC Index measures rates for shipping dry bulk freight and was crowned the best ETF of the month. The pickup in global economic growth has supported the dry bulk shipping rates. Gradually rising demand across all vessel categories has mainly aided the area and the related fund (read: Top-Performing ETFs of March).
ETFMG Treatments Testing and Advancements ETF (GERM - Free Report) – Up 7.9%
Low rates aided the biotech industry last week. Notably, the space suffered a lot in March due to rising rates. Apart from low rates, COVID-19 vaccines made the fund GERM a winner last week. The fund puts 8.68% focus on BioNTech, 7.03% weight in Moderna and 5.21% weight in Novavax — all of which are known for COVID-19 vaccines. With the J&J vaccine recently facing setbacks, some investors arebetting big on Novavax.
Moderna and BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines have already been a hit. Another mRNA vaccine developer CureVac is also in sweet spot. CureVac expects its shotwill get EU approval in June. The vaccine maker is on the verge of finalizing the recruitment for the vaccine’s phase 3 clinical trial, per a CNBC article. The fund GERM puts 4.88% weight on CureVac (read:Moderna ETFs to Gain on Positive 'Real-World' Study Data).
Strong demand in Asia and colder weather in Europeboosted global natural gas prices last week. This, in turn, is also strengthening the outlook for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.The underlying Natural Gas Price Index of UNG is the futures contract on natural gas as traded on the NYMEX.
iPatha.B Sugar Subindex TR ETN – Up 6.1%
Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of sugar, is eyeing to use a higher percentage of its sugarcane output to produce ethanol (which has strong demand). The move, in turn, would result in a decline in sugar production and boost prices.
China's economy grew a record 18.3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter last year. It marked the largest expansion in gross domestic product since China started keeping quarterly records in 1992. However, the figuremissed Reuters’ expectations of 19% growth.
Investors should note that China matters the most for copper as the country is the world’s biggest consumer of this industrial metal, accounting for roughly 40% of global copper demand.
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Top-Performing ETFs of Last Week
Last week was upbeat for Wall Street with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones closing out the week at a record high. Moreover, both indexes logged four successive weeks of gains. The S&P 500 (up 1.37%), the Dow Jones (up 1.18%), the Nasdaq Composite (up 1.1%) and the Russell 2000 (up 0.9%) – all were in green last week (read: April Ushers in Super Gains for S&P 500: ETFs in Focus).
Solid U.S. economic data points and subdued U.S. treasury yields kept the markets charged-up last week. U.S. retail sales recorded the best gains in March in 10 months. Sales surged 9.8% sequentially in March 2021, easily beating market forecasts of a 5.9% increase. The $1,400 checks sent to consumers from mid-March and improvement in the weather after winter storms in Texas and some other parts of the South region in February led to this gain.
Another report revealed that first-time filings for unemployment insurance declined, with the Labor Department reporting 576,000 new jobless claims for the week ended Apr 10, down from the expectation for another 710,000 claim filings. Such upbeat data points have every reason to propagate into the stock market.
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETFs that topped last week.
Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF (BDRY - Free Report) – Up 12.96%
The shipping ETF tracks the Capesize 5TC Index, Panamax 4TC Index & Supramax 6TC Index measures rates for shipping dry bulk freight and was crowned the best ETF of the month. The pickup in global economic growth has supported the dry bulk shipping rates. Gradually rising demand across all vessel categories has mainly aided the area and the related fund (read: Top-Performing ETFs of March).
ETFMG Treatments Testing and Advancements ETF (GERM - Free Report) – Up 7.9%
Low rates aided the biotech industry last week. Notably, the space suffered a lot in March due to rising rates. Apart from low rates, COVID-19 vaccines made the fund GERM a winner last week. The fund puts 8.68% focus on BioNTech, 7.03% weight in Moderna and 5.21% weight in Novavax — all of which are known for COVID-19 vaccines. With the J&J vaccine recently facing setbacks, some investors are betting big on Novavax.
Moderna and BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines have already been a hit. Another mRNA vaccine developer CureVac is also in sweet spot. CureVac expects its shot will get EU approval in June. The vaccine maker is on the verge of finalizing the recruitment for the vaccine’s phase 3 clinical trial, per a CNBC article. The fund GERM puts 4.88% weight on CureVac (read: Moderna ETFs to Gain on Positive 'Real-World' Study Data).
US Natural Gas Fund (UNG - Free Report) – Up 6.5%
Strong demand in Asia and colder weather in Europe boosted global natural gas prices last week. This, in turn, is also strengthening the outlook for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.The underlying Natural Gas Price Index of UNG is the futures contract on natural gas as traded on the NYMEX.
iPatha.B Sugar Subindex TR ETN – Up 6.1%
Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of sugar, is eyeing to use a higher percentage of its sugarcane output to produce ethanol (which has strong demand). The move, in turn, would result in a decline in sugar production and boost prices.
Same is the condition in another key sugar-producing country, India. With the government’s move on increasing ethanol blending with petrol to levels of 20% by 2025, capacity expansion in ethanol production is in the cards. Also, a subdued greenback last week favored broad-based commodity investing last week (read: U.S. Dollar at Four-Week Low: ETFs to Benefit).
Global-X Copper Miners ETF (COPX - Free Report) – Up 6.03%
China's economy grew a record 18.3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter last year. It marked the largest expansion in gross domestic product since China started keeping quarterly records in 1992. However, the figure missed Reuters’ expectations of 19% growth.
Investors should note that China matters the most for copper as the country is the world’s biggest consumer of this industrial metal, accounting for roughly 40% of global copper demand.
Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>