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Best Inverse/Leveraged ETFs of Last Week

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Wall Street was upbeat last week, with the S&P 500 adding 1.9%, the Dow Jones advancing 2.2% and the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.1%. Most importantly, the Dow Jones just had its best week of 2024. On Friday, the Dow secured its eighth consecutive session of gains.

While most of the 30 members of the Dow Jones Index have performed well over the last seven days, the Dow rally was mainly driven by Amgen (AMGN - Free Report) , Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) , Apple Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) , Boeing (BA - Free Report) and The Goldman Sachs Group (GS - Free Report) .

As far as company-specific news is concerned, Apple drew attention. The company unveiled a new lineup of iPads for the first time in two years. The tech giant launched two new versions of its top-end iPad Pro models and two new versions of its mid-tier iPad Air. It also debuted the Apple Pencil Pro stylus and an updated Magic Keyboard case for the iPad Pro line.

Among U.S. economic data points, we received downbeat consumer sentiment data, which dropped to a six-month low. The University of Michigan Survey of Consumers sentiment index for May posted an initial reading of 67.4 for the month, down from 77.2 in April and well below the Dow Jones consensus call for 76.

Fed officials reaffirmed the stance for higher rates for a longer period. Policymaker Neel Kashkari signaled that rates are likely to stay at historic highs for a while. Boston Fed President Susan Collins further supported this notion, saying it will take longer "than previously thought" to bring inflation down (read: ETFs to Bet on Dow Jones' Longest Winning Streak of 2024).

Meanwhile, U.S. companies are having their best earnings season in nearly two years. With 80% of the companies in the S&P 500 having already reported, the index is on track to record 5% growth in first-quarter earnings per share per FactSet, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.

This is the biggest year-over-year increase since the second quarter of 2022 and higher than the 3.2% growth that analysts had expected prior to the start of the season (read: Time to Tap Wall Street ETFs on Earnings Strength?).

Against this backdrop, below, we highlight a few winning inverse/leveraged ETFs of last week.

ETFs in Focus

Leveraged Gold Miners

MicroSectors Gold Miners 3X Leveraged ETN (GDXU - Free Report) – Up 17.1%

Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 2x Shares (JNUG - Free Report) – Up 13.7%

U.S. treasury yields remained subdued for most of the week. This has boosted the strength of the gold bullion, which gained about 1.7%. As mining stocks act as leveraged plays of the underlying metal, leveraged gold miners topped the return scoreboard last week.

Inverse/Leveraged Tesla

GraniteShares 2x Short TSLA Daily ETF (TSDD - Free Report) – Up 15.1%

T-Rex 2X Inverse Tesla Daily Target ETF TSLZ – Up 14.9%

Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) declined 8.4% last week. Tesla shares surged post releasing its earnings in late April. However, the company recently announced layoffs to cut costs. In any case, the company has been struggling lately to maintain to profit margin. All these factors probably weighed on Tesla shares and boosted this inverse/leveraged ETF.

Leveraged Utilities

Direxion Daily Utilities Bull 3X Shares (UTSL - Free Report) – Up 12.5%

Being a low-beta sector, utility is relatively protected from large swings (ups and downs) in the stock market and is thus considered a defensive investment or safe haven amid economic or political turmoil. The recent decline in bond yields also went in favor of the utility stocks.

Leveraged Meta               

GraniteShares 2x Long META Daily ETF (FBL - Free Report) – Up 10.5%

Unlike Tesla, Meta shares slumped post releasing earnings last month. But now investors are probably exercising the buy-the-dip move on the Meta stock. A weaker rate environment also favored growth stocks like technology.

Leveraged Europe

Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bull 3x Shares (EURL - Free Report) – Up 9.8%

European shares recorded their biggest weekly gain since late January, rising on the back of some strong quarterly earnings and optimism around potential interest rate cuts.

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