Wall Street was moderately upbeat last week with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq gaining 0.87%, 1.6% and 0.3%, respectively. However, the small-cap index – the Russell 2000 – has advanced 6% as consumer inflation print came in at cooler-than-expected. Small-cap stocks, in fact, logged its best week since November.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) dipped 0.1% sequentially in June and increased just 3.0% year over year. The annual gain marked the slowest rise in consumer prices since early 2021. U.S. inflation, in fact, cooled for the third straight month.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs in June 2024, slightly below a downwardly revised 218,000 in May and above forecasts of 190,000. Data for May was revised sharply lower from an initial 272,000 and the April reading was also revised down by 57,000 to 108,000.

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.1%, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.8 million, changed little in June. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.6% and the number of unemployed people was 6.0 million.

This triggered talks that the Fed may cut rates sooner than expected. This week Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that the favorable economic conditions may help the Fed to start enacting interest-rate cuts.

Thursday's inflation print cemented bets on a cut by September, with around 90% of traders expecting such an outcome, according to CME FedWatch. As a result, rate-sensitive sectors surged last week. 

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning top-performing ETFs of last week.

ETF Areas in Focus

Biotech

Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC Quick QuoteBBC - Free Report) – Up 15.5% last week

Range Cancer Therapeutics ETF (CNCR Quick QuoteCNCR - Free Report) – Up 13.6%

Clean Energy

Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW Quick QuotePBW - Free Report) – Up 14.2% last week

ProShares S&P Kensho Cleantech ETF (CTEX Quick QuoteCTEX - Free Report) – Up 13.7%

Homebuilding

iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB Quick QuoteITB - Free Report) – Up 11.3%

SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB Quick QuoteXHB - Free Report) – Up 10.8%

Silver Miners

iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners ETF (SLVP Quick QuoteSLVP - Free Report) – Up 9.2%