7 Top ETFs That Trumped Last Week's Market Rout

Last week was extremely volatile for Wall Street with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq losing about 2.5%, 1.7% and 4.1%, respectively. There were two primary reasons that triggered the mayhem. One was overvaluation in high-flying tech stocks (which resulted in profit booking) and the other was the likelihood of the delayed rollout of a coronavirus vaccine. Nine drug companies pledged that they will not submit vaccine candidates for FDA review until their safety and efficacy are shown in large clinical trials.

In any case, September is historically the worst month of the year for stocks. ETF Strategies to Tackle Volatile September ).

On the economic news front, the U.S. economy added 1.371 million jobs in August 2020, decreasing from a downwardly revised 1.734 million in the previous month, and slightly below market forecasts of 1.4 million. Applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits held steady, a sign that said extensive job losses are continuing.

Initial jobless claims in regular state programs were unchanged at 884,000 in the week ended Sep 5, the Labor Department data showed. The median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists Gold ETFs to Get Back Their Glitter As Volatility Flares Up? ).

However, manufacturing activities look to be in decent shape as after clocking the highest reading since March 2019 in July, U.S. manufacturing activity accelerated to a nearly two-year high in August due to solid new orders (read: August U.S. Manufacturing Best in 2 Years: 5 Solid ETF Areas ).

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few ETFs that bypassed the market rout successfully last week.

iPath Series B Bloomberg Platinum Subindex Total Return ETN PGM – Up 5.4%

The underlying Bloomberg Platinum Subindex Total Return reflects the returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the futures contracts on platinum. The fund charges 45 bps in fees.

ELEMENTS Linked to the MLCX Grains Index - Total Return GRU – Up 5.0%

The underlying benchmark is designed to provide investors with an index for the grains sector and for investment in commodities as an asset class. The index comprises futures contracts on four physical commodities: corn, soybeans, soybean oil and wheat. Among these components, weightings are heaviest in wheat and are followed by corn and then soybeans and finally soybean oil.

AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Short ETF DWSH – Up 4.9%

The AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Short ETF is actively managed with an investment focus that involves buying securities that have appreciated in price more than the other securities in the investment universe and holding those securities until they underperform (read: 5 ETFs to Invest Amid Market Rout ).

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Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF CNCR – Up 4.8%

The underlying Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy Index seeks to track the combined performance of a basket of companies that develop therapies to treat cancer by harnessing the body’s own immune system.

Barclays (LON:BARC) Women in Leadership ETN WIL – Up 4.1%

The underlying Barclays Women in Leadership Total Return USD Index provides investors with exposure to U.S.-based companies that satisfy one or both of the gender diversity criteria of having a female chief executive officer or having at least 25% female members on the board of directors. These companies also satisfy certain market capitalization, liquidity and other selection criteria, and concentration limits.

iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF ITB – Up 3.8%

The underlying Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Builders Index is a subset of the Dow Jones U.S. Household Goods Index. It is a free-float adjusted market capitalization-weighted index. It measures the performance of the home construction sector of the U.S. equity market (read: 4 Sector ETFs Grab Attention on Solid Job Creation ).

iShares MSCI Philippines ETF EPHE – Up 3.6%

The underlying MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index is a market-capitalization weighted index designed to measure the performance of equity securities in the top 99% in market capitalization of Philippine equity markets.

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research