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5 Best ETFs of the Last Week

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Last week was extremely upbeat for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 logged the best week since February, per a MarketWatch article. Slightly tamer-than-expected inflation data probably boosted the investors’ sentiments. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, barring the volatile food and energy components, increased 0.5%, below economists’ expectations of an 0.6% increase.

Then there was Biden's infrastructure deal, which boosted investors’ optimism even more. According to the White House, the infrastructure deal will include $579 billion in new spending. Going by a CNBC article, the proposal will allocate about $312 billion to transportation, with $109 billion going for development in roads, bridges and other major projects, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail and $49 billion in public transit.

Going on, about $15 billion will be invested toward electric vehicle infrastructure and electric buses and transit, much lesser than what Biden initially proposed. Furthermore, $266 billion will be allocated toward non-transportation infrastructure, including $73 billion for power, $65 billion for broadband and $55 billion for water. (read: ETFs to Gain on Biden's Infrastructure Deal).

The S&P 500 (up 2.74%), the Dow Jones (up 3.44%), the Nasdaq composite (up 2.35%) and the Russell 2000 (up 4.32%) gained materially last week.  Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETFs that gained the maximum last week.

ETFs in Focus

Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF BDRY – Up 10.7%

The underlying Capesize 5TC Index, Panamax 4TC Index & Supramax 6TC Index measure rates for shipping dry bulk freight. The fund has been super strong in the recent months. 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.        

Natural Gas ETF First Trust FCG – Up 10.5%

Natural gas prices jumped to a two-month high. Scorching heat and improved export demand indicated even tighter balances ahead of the peak summer cooling season.  The July Nymex contract is hovering around the highest close for the prompt month since January 2019.

The underlying ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index is an equal-weighted index comprised of exchange-listed companies that derive a substantial portion of their revenues from the exploration and production of natural gas.          

Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Invesco PXE – Up 10.1%

Energy stocks are on the course of their best year in more than three decades, per a CNBC article. The group is still up more than 40% for the year. The S&P 500 is up nearly 14% this year. Crude prices are up about 80% over the past year as the demand outlook continues to improve with economic reopening. Global oil demand is set to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022, rising 5.4 mb/d in 2021 and a further 3.1 mb/d next year. 

The coronavirus vaccine rollout is gradually helping control the spread of the outbreak across the globe and this has boded well for the energy sector. The jump in oil prices came despite the rising virus cases in India – one of the key consumers of oil (read: MLP ETFs At One-Year High: Can the Rally Sustain?). 

The underlying Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Intellidex Index is composed of stocks of 30 U.S. companies involved in the exploration and production of natural resources used to produce energy.

Global X Copper Miners ETF COPX – Up 8.9%

Copper price has been hovering at an all-time high. Economic reopening is leading to higher industrial activities. Demand will outdo near-term supply. The constrained supply conditions are expected to remain given that environmental policies are driving the use of copper along with increasing investments in renewable energy and electronic vehicles, which will need large volumes of the raw material. This is making funds like COPX attractive investment options.              

The underlying Solactive Global Copper Miners Total Return Index is designed to reflect the performance of the copper mining industry. It is comprised of selected companies globally that are actively engaged in some aspect of the copper mining industry, such as copper mining, refining, or exploration.

iPatha.B Nickel Subindex TR ETN JJN – Up 7.9%

Upbeat economic growth has boosted industrial metals lately. A rise in demand in the spot market from alloy makers mainly supported the price rise in nickel futures. The underlying Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return reflects the returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the futures contracts on nickel.

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