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4 Best Leveraged ETFs of Last Week

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Last week was a solid one for the broader market. Hopes of a slowdown in the spread of coronavirus boosted global markets. U.S. equity funds like SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY - Free Report) , Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ - Free Report) and SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA - Free Report) have advanced about 1.6%, 2.4% and 1.2%, in the past five days (as of Feb 14), respectively (read: Are U.S. Assets Acting as Safe Havens? ETFs in Focus).

All-world ETF iShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI - Free Report) has added 1.3% in the past five days, all-important Asia ETF iShares Asia 50 ETF (AIA - Free Report) has risen 2.9% and the emerging market ETF iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM - Free Report) has climbed 1.9% (read: Coronavirus Puts These Country ETFs on High Alert).

Upbeat earnings probably have snatched the spotlight from coronavirus. China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (BABA - Free Report) and semiconductor behemoth Nvidia (NVDA - Free Report) reported solid earnings last week (read: Alibaba Fiscal Q3 Earnings Put These ETFs in Focus).

The week also saw the release of some upbeat U.S. economic indicators, including jobs and retail sales data. The January non-farm payroll reading of 225,000 was well above the estimated 160,000 as well as the upwardly-revised December reading of 147,000.  U.S. retail sales rose in January for fourth months in a row (read: 3 Sector ETFs & Stocks to Win on Upbeat January Jobs Data).

Against this backdrop, we highlight the best-performing leveraged ETFs of last week.

Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL - Free Report) – Up 15.2%

Upbeat semiconductor earnings, phase-one trade deal and signs of some containment in the coronavirus spread boosted the space last week.

The fund gives 300% exposure to the performance of the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index, whichmeasures the performance of the semiconductor sub-sector of the U.S. equity market. The fund charges 99 bps in fees (read: 9 Leveraged ETFs That More Than Doubled in 2019).

Direxion Daily MSCI Real Estate Bull 3X Shares (DRN - Free Report) – Up 12.2%

Real estate stocks surged last week on merger talks and a rally in cell tower REITs. Per an article published on seekingalpha, “cell Tower REITs surged more than 10% after Sprint and T-Mobile reached a merger deal.” Meanwhile, Simon Property’s plans to buy Taubman Centers boost the prospects of mall REIT consolidation. Subdued U.S. treasury yields have also been a positive.

The fund offers 300% exposure to the performance of the MSCI US IMI Real Estate 25/50 Index, which is a free float market capitalization weighted index that is comprised of Equity REIT securities that belong to the MSCI US Investable Market 2500 Index. The expense ratio of the fund is 1.04%.

MicroSectors FANG+ Index 3X Leveraged ETN (FNGU - Free Report) – Up 11.9%

Wall Street is near record levels mainly because of big tech names. This clearly explains the rally in FNGU.

The MicroSectors FANG+ Index 3X Leveraged ETN is linked to a three times leveraged participation in the performance of the NYSE FANG+ index. The index includes 10 highly liquid stocks that represent a segment of the technology and consumer discretionary sectors consisting of highly-traded growth stocks of technology and tech-enabled companies.

ProShares UltraPro 3x Crude Oil ETF (OILU - Free Report) – Up 10.4%

Oil demand was initially hit by the virus scare. But expectations that key producers would enact deeper output cuts to make up for the slump in demand lifted prices last week.

The fund looks to correspond to three times the daily performance of the Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Subindex. The expense ratio of the fund is 0.95% (read: Bet on Oil Surge With These Leveraged ETFs).

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