Wall Street was muted last week. The S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite added about 0.6%, 0.3% and 0.6% past week, respectively. The week was marked by the bitcoin rally, some Reddit bets and uptrend in some cyclical sectors. Below we highlight a few winning ETFs that returned 10% last week.
Transformational Data Sharing Amplify ETF BLOK – Up 23.6%
Last week can easily be attributed to Tesla-driven bitcoin rally. Bitcoin climbed around 20% on Feb 8 after the world’s largest electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced that it has purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Bitcoin crossed the 47,000 mark on Feb 8. Corporations’ greater acceptance in allowing customers to hold bitcoin and other virtual coins in their online wallets has been favoring the cryptocurrency.
Before this, PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) had also announced such a move. Per the latest developments, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay users can now spend in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Though bitcoin ETFs are not available to investors, they have blockchain ETFs at their disposal. Per a source, “the blockchain in Bitcoin literally acts a ledger; it keeps track of the balances for all users and updates them as money changes hands.” Hence, the blockchain ETF BLOK gained materially last week.
Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF BDRY – Up 21.4%
The pickup in global economic growth has supported the dry bulk shipping rates. Gradually rising demand across all vessel categories have probably been aiding the area and the related fund (read: Top & Flop Zones of 2020 and Their ETFs).
The underlying index of the fund Capesize 5TC Index, Panamax 4TC Index & Supramax 6TC measures rates for shipping dry bulk freight. It provides exposure to the dry bulk shipping market through a portfolio of near-dated freight futures contracts on dry bulk indices.
Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF CNBS – Up 19.1%
After the world's largest video game retailer GameStop (NYSE:GME) and Silver, Reddit’s discussion has now popularized marijuana stocks like Sundial Growers Inc. (NASDAQ:SNDL) (up 78.8% on Feb 10) and Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) (up more than 50% on Feb 10). The pending merger between Tilray and Aphria (NASDAQ:APHA) was supposedly the main driver of the promotion for the latter.
Apart from Sundial Growers and Tilray, Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC) Corporation (CGC), Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE:ACB) and Aphria Inc. (APHA) also gained 6.3%, 21.2% and 10.7% on Feb 10, respectively. Such price actions boosted the pot ETF CNBS (read: Marijuana ETFs on a High on Reddit Frenzy).
Simplify Volt Fintech Disruption ETF VFIN – Up 12.9%
The actively managed Simplify Volt Fintech Disruption ETF looks to concentrate in those few disruptive companies poised to dominate the new era of fintech and then enhance the concentrated exposures with options. The COVID-19 outbreak has brightened the necessity of the tech-driven and contactless transactions. The latest bitcoin rally has probably been befitting the fintech space.
Northshore Global Uranium Mining ETF URNM – Up 12.2%
Uranium equities had a great week thanks to positive business fundamentals. As quoted on the S&P Global Market Intelligence report, TD Securities analyst Greg Barnes wrote in a Feb 3 note “that a subreddit named r/UraniumSqueeze was created Feb 1 on the Reddit website amid a retail-driven rally in silver markets and had already accrued about 500 members. Users on the social media site called on other day-by-day investors to invest in the radioactive metal.” The very news probably boosted uranium prices and the mining companies’ ETF like URNM.
Graniteshares Platinum Shares ETF PLTM – Up 12.0%
The white metal – platinum – is gaining steam of late. In fact, platinum rallied to its highest level in more than six years to above $1200 per ounce with analysts predicting more upside in the coming months given increasing demand and tightening supply conditions. Moreover, it is an industrial metal. Upbeat sentiments about the global economic recovery has also been aiding the metal (read: Platinum Hits 6-Year Highs: ETFs to Tap the Rally).
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