ETF Highlights: Bulls Forge Ahead,Coffee And India Funds Soar

Last week saw a tough fight between the bulls and the bears, though ultimately the bulls forged ahead despite some big question markets regarding several international issues. On the whole, the week was pretty volatile thanks to some grim updates from Eastern Europe including the Malaysian Airlines jet crash near the Russian/Ukrainian border, escalating violence in Gaza and fresh sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Russia.
                
In fact, on Thursday, the downing of the Malaysian airline led S&P 500 to suffer its worst slide since April 10 (down 1.18%), as per a Reuters report. However, U.S. stocks finally managed to rebound on Friday and ended the week on a positive note with the Dow having climbed 0.9%, the S&P 500 up 0.5% and the NASDAQ gaining 0.4% for the week.
 
This bullishness in the U.S. markets reflect a relatively positive start to the Q2 earnings season with total earnings for the 73 S&P 500 members to have reported results (as of Thursday, July 17^th)  jumping +5.5% from the same period last year on 3.8% higher revenues.
 
In addition, potential deals on the merger and acquisition front and strong growth data from China boosted investors’ sentiment. China’s economy expanded at a better-than expected pace of 7.5% during the second quarter, allaying slowdown concerns within the economy.
 
Given the mixed sentiments worldwide, some of the ETFs/ETNs emerged as winners last week while a few lost in the double digits. Below, we have highlighted some of the big gainers and losers from the week:
 
Top Gainers
 
iPath Global Carbon ETN (NYSE:GRN) – Up 8.6%
 
While the above product was one of the worst performers in the week before last (ended July 11), it was the best performing product in the U.S. unleveraged market last week.
 
Some of the major reform measures proposed last week by the UK to the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) to improve the emissions “cap and trade” system caused this ETN to rise 8.6%.  Among them, the UK has called for cancellation of surplus allowances before 2020 to help restore the balance between supply and demand.
 
GRN tracks the Barclays Global Carbon Index Total Return, which measures the performance of the most highly traded carbon-related credit plans. The fund is unpopular and illiquid with an asset base of under $2 million and average volume of 6,000 shares
 
Emerging Global Shares INDXX India Infrastructure Index Fund (NYSE:INXX) - Up 8%
 
Indian markets bounced back nicely last week, being buoyed mainly by the first budget from the Modi led government. The ETF got a boost as the new Indian government unveiled plans to invest heavily in the country’s infrastructure sector while the country’s Reserve Bank also announced steps to Original post

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research