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Best ETF Areas of Last Week

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Last week was upbeat for Wall Street. The S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq gained about 0.94%, 0.78% and 1.11% last week. The stocks basically ignored myriad of concerns including inflationary pressures and rising Delta variant of COVID-19 cases and continued rallying. However, tech stocks specifically surged probably due to the fact that COVID environment boosts the demand for stay-at-home stocks which are largely dependent on technology (read: S&P 500 to Roar Higher: ETFs to Ride the Rally).

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETF areas that won last week.

Clean Energy

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing category continues to remain one of the most popular arenas among investors. ESG funds saw attractive inflows already this year. U.S. President Joe Biden is known as promoting clean energy. The United States once again entered the Paris climate accord – adopted in 2016 – in the Biden era. Biden wants the United States to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions, no later than 2050. All these initiatives helped boost ESG investing.

Alpha Architect ETF Trust Viridi Cleaner Energy ) – Up 17.6%

Blockchain

Bitcoin rallied near $43,000 as short positions continue to slow down from the second quarter’s steep sell-off. Bitcoin by market value is up about 1% over the past week.Investors can choose to invest in bitcoin-related products through much stable investing options like blockchain or digital transformation ETFs. As a result, these ETFs shot up last week.

Vaneck Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP - Free Report) – Up 16.3%   

Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH - Free Report) – Up 15.7%

Transformational Data Sharing Amplify ETF (BLOK - Free Report) – Up 9.21%

Biotech

The Q2 earnings picture of the healthcare sector seems solid with results from the companies reported so far are up 17.7% on 20.3% revenue growth. There has been demand for COVID-19 vaccines. Sanofi has agreed to acquire U.S. biotech company mRNA developer Translate Bio in a $3.2 billion deal. Moderna has entered the S&P 500. This is because "Since COVID, mRNA vaccines have made a big impact on the future of vaccine R&D and the most obvious target for next-generation mRNA vaccines is influenza," as quoted on a Reuters article (read: Sanofi to Buy mRNA Developer: ETFs in Focus).

ETFMG Treatments Testing and Advancements ETF ) – Up 5.7%

Franklin Genomic Advancements ETF (HELX - Free Report) ) – Up 5.3%

Banks

U.S. Treasury yields jumped higher as the Labor Department’s jobs report came out better than expected. The benchmark U.S. treasury yield jumped t0 1.31% on Aug 6, 2021 versus 1.20% recorded on Aug 2. Since bank stocks fare better in a rising rate environment, bank ETFs gained materially last week (read: Banking Earnings Decent: Time to Buy Financial ETFs on Value?).

Nasdaq Bank ETF First Trust (FTXO - Free Report) ) – Up 5.4%

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