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4 Best ETF Areas of Last Week

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Wall Street was upbeat last week. The S&P 500 gained 1.4%, the Dow Jones added 0.04% and the Nasdaq advanced 2.3% last week. The S&P 500 reached a historic milestone. It hit the 5,000-mark for the first time ever.

Despite the market's speculation regarding potential interest rate cuts, Fed officials reiterated their cautious approach. Boston Fed President Susan Collins emphasized that rate cuts could be on the horizon "later this year."

However, the central bank would require additional evidence of inflation cooling before taking such actions. This stance underscores that the Fed is also weighing the options of rate cuts – a monetary policy stance investors are craving for.

About two-thirds of S&P 500 firms are out with their earnings results this season. On average, these results have surpassed Wall Street expectations, contributing to the positive sentiment in the market.

Notably, the "Magnificent Seven" stocks, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) and Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) , which account for almost 30% of the S&P 500 index, have come up with upbeat results this season.

In prominent earnings release, Disney (DIS - Free Report) announced a significant increase in its cash dividend by 50%, alongside the release of its fiscal first-quarter earnings report, which surpassed expectations. Meta also declared its first-ever dividend this reporting season (read: Focus on Disney ETFs Post Q1 Earnings Beat).

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few best-performing ETFs of last week (read: S&P 500 About to Hit 5,000: More Reasons for Further ETF Rally).

ETFs in Focus

Bitcoin Miner

Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI - Free Report) ) – Up 31.4%

Bitcoin prices jumped about 11% last week. Bitcoin’s recent rally was helped by record highs for stocks as investors’ risk appetite grew. Plus, the recent approval of bitcoin ETFs helped the rally.

China

Xtrackers Harvest CSI 500 China A-Shares Small Cap ETF (ASHS - Free Report) ) – Up 13.4%

Chinese stocks are showing signs of bottoming out as the government intervened to shore up the market. The so-called national team of state-backed institutions poured money into the market through the purchase of exchange-traded funds and short-selling regulations were tightened further. The Shanghai Composite Index gained momentum last week, heading into the Lunar New Year break. The roughly 5% weekly gain of that index was the highest in 15 months.

Shipping

Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF (BDRY - Free Report) ) – Up 10.6%

Recent weeks have seen a surge in security threats in the Red Sea, primarily due to attacks by Yemen-based Houthi militants. This has forced shipping companies to adjust their usual navigation routes, resulting in an unintended substantial rise in freight rates.

Semiconductor

KraneShares CICC China 5G & Semiconductor Index ETF ) – Up 10.1%

The semiconductor sector is performing well this year, driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Most biggies in the sector have come up with upbeat earnings this season (read: Semiconductor ETFs Look Well Poised Post Q4 Earnings).

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