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4 Best ETFs of Last Week

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Wall Street was subdued last week. The S&P 500 inched down 0.04%, the Dow Jones lost 0.6% and the Nasdaq was off 0.2% last week.  Following a period subjugated by the “Magnificent Seven” mega-cap tech stocks — similar to the dotcom bubble — investors are now looking beyond the big techs. As a result, a market shift took place and weighed on the broader market (read: Time to Buy These 4 ETF Areas?).

Meanwhile, mortgage rates fell to their lowest level in over a year, marking a nice development for the housing market. Expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates in September have caused long-term bond yields to decline, which in turn has pushed mortgage rates downward. The decline in mortgage rates will boost prospective homebuyers’ purchasing power and boost sales (read: Will Homebuilding ETFs Have Their Moment Now?).

U.S. stocks rebounded in the latter phase of the week after weekly initial jobless claims fell more than the forecast in a positive update on the health of the U.S. labor market. This has alleviated recessionary fears (that was caused by downbeat jobs data released a few days back) and boosted Wall Street stocks. In fact, Thursday marked the S&P 500's largest one-day gain since November 2022 (read: Can Wall Street ETFs Sustain the Latest Rebound?).

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

ETFs in Focus

ProShares Short Ether Strategy ETF (SETH - Free Report) – Up 10%

Ether prices too dropped last week due to the flare-up of risk-off trade sentiments. However, finally, Bitcoin and Ether prices jumped up to 10% on Friday after US jobless claims fell more than expected, erasing concerns about a weakening labor market.

United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG - Free Report) – Up 9.4%

Natural gas futures prices surged nearly 4% on August 7, 2024, defying recent bearish trends. Several factors likely including bargain hunting, inventory concerns, geopolitical risks, technical factors, and shifting weather patterns caused the rally, per oilprice.com.

iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap ETF (EWZS - Free Report) – Up 8.5%

Brazil shares jumped lately thanks to gains in the Real Estate, Public Utilities and Financials sectors. As a result, leveraged Brazil stocks have gained last week.     

Simplify Interest Rate Hedge ETF (PFIX - Free Report) – Up 6.9%

The benchmark U.S. treasury yields jumped from 3.78% on Aug 5, 2024 to 3.94% on Aug 9, 2024. This has boosted the ETF PFIX, which seeks to hedge interest rate movements arising from rising long-term interest rates, and to benefit from market stress when fixed income volatility increases, while providing the potential for income. The fund yields 9.31% annually.


 

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