Top ETF Stories of November

Wall Street was on a topsy-turvy ride in the month of November. While the start of the month was decent, a renewed virus scare and lockdowns weighed on the broader market at the end. Overall, the S&P 500, the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 lost about 1.4%, 4.4%, 0.7% and 6.9% past month, respectively.

Nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe in late November once again stirred fears of further spread of infections. While this raised the chances of another wave of COVID-19 in other parts of the world, the finding of a new COVID-19 variant, namely Omicron, led to a massive crash in Wall Street in the month-end.

Meanwhile, the Fed started QE tapering from November and corporate earnings came in upbeat. Holiday sales are forecast to be solid in 2021. Retail sales for the month of October was strong. Inflation data too was high due to supply chain issues. Oil prices staged a rally in November due to the prospect of higher demand but nosedived in the Thanksgiving week along with Wall Street on Omicron fears.

Against this backdrop, we highlight a few investing events that caught investors’ attention in November.

The emergence of a new coronavirus strain, namely Omicron, was found to have a much bigger impact on Wall Street than anticipated. The World Health Organization called the new variant “highly transmissible.” The news of the spread of the variant caused a bloodbath on Wall Street on Black Friday. United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO), LP MRNA . Both companies are known for the success of the COVID-19 vaccine. With the spread of COVID-19 resuming all over again, all focus will now shift to vaccination and booster shots. Although Moderna shares surged on the Omicron news initially, shares slumped later on the Moderna CEO’s comment that the vaccine is less effective on new variant.

Rivian Automotive, the electric-vehicle company backed by Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (which has 20% stake in the automaker) and Ford Motor (NYSE:F), went public on Nov 10, 2021, through a high-profile IPO. As many as 153 million shares were sold at an initial offering price of $78.00, valuing the company at $66.5 billion. Shares of RIVN saw an awesome spike on market debut.

Phoenix Motors filed for an initial public offering in the United States on Monday, becoming the latest EV maker looking to cash in on a growing investor appetite for eco-friendly automobiles, VCAR was up 8% in November.

The technology sector was well-placed in November with semiconductor deserving a special mention.VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) has advanced 22.1% past month. The semiconductor space has been on a tear as the pandemic has bolstered the demand for chips, leading to the worst global shortage in many years. Corporate earnings from the likes of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) have been upbeat. The recent upsurge in the electric vehicle industry and increased awareness for clean energy have also made the semiconductor industry an investors’ darling.

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research