Wall Street has been witnessing the “Santa Claus rally.” The term has been coined for a period generally said to cover the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading sessions of January. The two broader market indices, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose to record high levels on Dec 29. In fact, the S&P 500 index witnessed its 70th record close of 2021 on the third last trading day of the year.

Going by Bank of America analysis, the S&P 500 has seen Santa Claus rally for 78.5% of the time since 1928, per a CNBC article. According to the same article, Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, has also mentioned that “Santa has been good to investors this holiday season, and we look for another year of positive returns in 2022.”

The Omicron-related worries are slowly easing out. The variant might be highly-transmissible but has a milder impact on patients. In fact, a South African study has indicated that Omicron infections can increase immunity against the Delta variant, as mentioned in a CNBC article. Also, in another encouraging development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lowered the isolation period requirements for people who test positive from 10 days to five if they do not show any symptoms, per the same article as stated above.

Investors gained optimism from some of President Joe Biden’s encouraging announcements. Biden stated that booster shots provide strong protection against COVID-19 (per a CNBC article). He also mentioned that the United States will not slip into the intense pandemic conditions faced during March 2020.

Updating about his preparations for the healthcare infrastructure and arrangements, Biden mentioned that the White House is buying 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests that will be available at free of cost for Americans from 2022 (as stated in a CNBC article). Biden also mentioned that 1000 medical personnel will be allocated from the military to assist hospitals if the situation gets severe in January and February.

Notably, three studies from South Africa, England and Scotland demonstrated that the Omicron variant is milder than the other variants and has been observed to result in lower hospitalizations (per a CNBC article).

Moreover, the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE) antiviral COVID-19 pill, PAXLOVID, has relaxed concerns regarding Omicron to some extent. Pfizer can begin delivering PAXLOVID in the United States on an immediate basis. In November, Pfizer had informed about signing an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 10 million treatment courses of PAXLOVID. The delivery will be completed in 2022. The FDA had also granted a nod to Merck’s antiviral pill for COVID-19.

Momentum ETFs Worth Your Attention

Momentum investing looks to fetch profits from hot stocks that have shown an uptrend over the past few weeks or months. Here we present five ETFs that could outperform on the current market optimism. Further, these could beat broader market returns in the coming months if the optimism prevails.

iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM Quick QuoteMTUM - Free Report)

iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF provides exposure to large and mid-cap stocks that exhibit relatively higher price momentum by tracking the MSCI USA Momentum SR Variant Index.

iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF charges 15 basis points (bps) in fees per year and is a popular choice, with AUM of $15.02 billion (read: ETF Strategies to Ride the Year-End Santa Rally).

Invesco DWA Momentum ETF (PDP Quick QuotePDP - Free Report)

Invesco DWA Momentum ETF tracks the Dorsey Wright Technical Leaders Index, which measures the performance of companies that demonstrate powerful relative strength characteristics.

Invesco DWA Momentum ETF has amassed $1.92 billion in its asset base and charges 62 bps in annual fees (read: Santa Arrives! High Beta & Momentum ETFs to Tap the Rally).

Invesco S&P MidCap Momentum ETF (XMMO Quick QuoteXMMO - Free Report)

Invesco S&P MidCap Momentum ETF follows the S&P Midcap 400 Momentum Index, designed to identify mid-cap firms with the highest momentum scores.

XMMO has AUM of $984.6 million and an expense ratio of 0.33% (read: 4 Top-Ranked ETF Underperformers of 2021 Could be Winners in 2022).

VictoryShares USAA MSCI USA Value Momentum ETF (ULVM Quick QuoteULVM - Free Report)

VictoryShares USAA MSCI USA Value Momentum ETF tracks the MSCI USA Select Value Momentum Blend Index, offering exposure to large and mid-cap companies with higher exposure to value and momentum factors while maintaining a moderate turnover and lower realized volatility than traditional capitalization-weighted indices.

VictoryShares USAA MSCI USA Value Momentum ETF accumulated $378.4 million in AUM and charges 0.20% in expense ratio.

SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus ETF (ONEO Quick QuoteONEO - Free Report)

With AUM of $333.9 million, SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus ETF targets large-cap securities with a combination of core factors (high value, high quality and low size characteristics) and a focus factor comprising high momentum characteristics.

SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus ETF follows the Russell 1000 Momentum Focused Factor Index and charges an annual fee of 20 bps.