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Wall Street was moderately upbeat last week, with the S&P 500 advancing 0.5% last week, the Dow Jones growing 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite inching up 0.2%. Last week was quite eventful due to the Fed meeting, retail sales data release and NVIDIA's (NVDA - Free Report) GTC (GPU Technology Conference). Let’s delve a little deeper.
General Motors (GM - Free Report) and NVIDIA announced a collaboration on next-generation vehicles, factories, and robots using AI, simulation, and accelerated computing. Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) and NVIDIA announced a first-of-its-kind integration between NVIDIA accelerated computing and inference software with Oracle’s AI infrastructure and generative AI services.
NVIDIA is collaborating with Disney (DIS - Free Report) and Google DeepMind to develop "Newton," a new physics engine designed to enhance Disney's next-generation robotic characters.
Fed Stayed Put; Maintains Rate Cut Projection
The Federal Reserve (Fed) unanimously voted to hold interest rates steady at 4.5% for a second successive meeting, following three rate reductions in a row that began last September. The Fed maintained the Fed’s two-rate cuts projections for this year. The decision was not as hawkish as investors feared, fueling a short-spelled stock market rally.
The Fed lowered its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 1.7% from 2.1%, indicating more moderate economic activity than anticipated. However, the Fed lifted its core inflation (excluding the volatile food and energy components) projections for 2025 to 2.8% from 2.5%.
This shift in inflation projection partially reflects the expected impact of recently implemented U.S. tariffs and the resultant retaliation. The year-end unemployment rate forecast was revised upward to 4.4% from 4.3%.
Fed Chair Powell said the central bank’s forecasts for less economic growth and higher inflation in 2025 somewhat make up for each other, explaining the fact that the forecast for rate cuts this year stayed at two.
Slower-Than-Expected Retail Sales Growth in February
Retail sales increased 0.2% in February sequentially, better than the downwardly revised decline of 1.2% the prior month but below the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.6% rise, as quoted on CNBC. The so-called control group, which rules out noncore sectors and feeds directly into gross domestic product calculations, rose a better-than-expected 1%. Excluding autos, the increase was 0.3%, in line with expectations.
Leveraged ETFs In Focus
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of last week.
Innovator US Equity Accelerated ETF – Up 4%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF - April seeks to provide investors with returns that are twice those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 17.16% prior to management and other fees and 16.37% after management fees while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated Plus ETF (XTAP - Free Report) – Up 3.6%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated Plus ETF - April seeks to provide investors with returns that are three times those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 16.20% prior to management and other fees and 15.41% after management fees while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF – July (XDJL - Free Report) – Up 3.0%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF - July provides investors with returns that are twice those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 16.40%, prior to management and other fees, while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses, over the period from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
The SMLL ETF provides small cap equity exposure with a narrowed focus on attractive risk-adjusted returns with downside mitigation. The fund charges 88 bps in fees.
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4 Top-Performing ETFs of Last Week
Wall Street was moderately upbeat last week, with the S&P 500 advancing 0.5% last week, the Dow Jones growing 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite inching up 0.2%. Last week was quite eventful due to the Fed meeting, retail sales data release and NVIDIA's (NVDA - Free Report) GTC (GPU Technology Conference). Let’s delve a little deeper.
Inside NVIDIA GTC
NVIDIA in fact continued to dominate headlines last week thanks to GTC 2025, the company’s annual event in which it unveils new services, hardware, tech demos, and, most importantly, what’s next for AI.
General Motors (GM - Free Report) and NVIDIA announced a collaboration on next-generation vehicles, factories, and robots using AI, simulation, and accelerated computing. Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) and NVIDIA announced a first-of-its-kind integration between NVIDIA accelerated computing and inference software with Oracle’s AI infrastructure and generative AI services.
NVIDIA is collaborating with Disney (DIS - Free Report) and Google DeepMind to develop "Newton," a new physics engine designed to enhance Disney's next-generation robotic characters.
Fed Stayed Put; Maintains Rate Cut Projection
The Federal Reserve (Fed) unanimously voted to hold interest rates steady at 4.5% for a second successive meeting, following three rate reductions in a row that began last September. The Fed maintained the Fed’s two-rate cuts projections for this year. The decision was not as hawkish as investors feared, fueling a short-spelled stock market rally.
The Fed lowered its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 1.7% from 2.1%, indicating more moderate economic activity than anticipated. However, the Fed lifted its core inflation (excluding the volatile food and energy components) projections for 2025 to 2.8% from 2.5%.
This shift in inflation projection partially reflects the expected impact of recently implemented U.S. tariffs and the resultant retaliation. The year-end unemployment rate forecast was revised upward to 4.4% from 4.3%.
Fed Chair Powell said the central bank’s forecasts for less economic growth and higher inflation in 2025 somewhat make up for each other, explaining the fact that the forecast for rate cuts this year stayed at two.
Slower-Than-Expected Retail Sales Growth in February
Retail sales increased 0.2% in February sequentially, better than the downwardly revised decline of 1.2% the prior month but below the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.6% rise, as quoted on CNBC. The so-called control group, which rules out noncore sectors and feeds directly into gross domestic product calculations, rose a better-than-expected 1%. Excluding autos, the increase was 0.3%, in line with expectations.
Leveraged ETFs In Focus
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of last week.
Innovator US Equity Accelerated ETF – Up 4%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF - April seeks to provide investors with returns that are twice those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 17.16% prior to management and other fees and 16.37% after management fees while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated Plus ETF (XTAP - Free Report) – Up 3.6%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated Plus ETF - April seeks to provide investors with returns that are three times those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 16.20% prior to management and other fees and 15.41% after management fees while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF – July (XDJL - Free Report) – Up 3.0%
The Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF - July provides investors with returns that are twice those of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, up to the upside cap of 16.40%, prior to management and other fees, while approximately matching SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust losses, over the period from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The fund charges 79 bps in fees.
Harbor Active Small Cap ETF (SMLL - Free Report) – Up 2.6%
The SMLL ETF provides small cap equity exposure with a narrowed focus on attractive risk-adjusted returns with downside mitigation. The fund charges 88 bps in fees.