Zinger Key Points
- Strong earnings reports proved to be a saving grace for the market in a particularly volatile week ended Jan. 31.
- Yet, that could not save the S&P 500 from ending the week 1% lower, and Nasdaq, 1.6% down.
- Get Wall Street's Hottest Chart Every Morning
The U.S. markets had a lot to digest in the power-packed week that ended Jan.31.
Several ETFs braved the back-to-back market movers and stood out for their solid performance, with notable gains across sectors such as technology and fixed income. Let us delve into the key market trends of the week in this recap and identify five ETFs that gained during this period:
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Amplify Commodity Trust Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF BDRY
- Weekly gain: 12.26%
- Focus: Pure focus on to dry bulk shipping companies; tracks the Breakwave Dry Freight Futures Index
- Expense ratio: 0.44%
Simplify Propel Opportunities ETF SURI
- Weekly Gain: 8.27%
- Focus: Offers exposure to lesser known yet strong biotech, pharma, health care technology, and life science companies, with opportunities for capital appreciation.
- Expense Ratio: 2.51%
Global X Social Media ETF SOCL
- Weekly Gain: 3.92%
- Focus: Offers exposure to companies that deal in social media, including social networking, file sharing, and other web-based media applications.
- Expense Ratio: 0.65%
WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund WCBR
- Weekly Gain: 3.47%
- Focus: Offers targeted exposure to companies dealing in cybersecurity technologies
- Expense Ratio: 0.45%
YieldMax BABA Option Income Strategy ETF BABO
- Weekly Gain: 7.38%
- Focus: Actively managed fund that aims to generate monthly income by selling or writing call options on Alibaba BABA.
- Expense Ratio: 0.99%
What Drove Markets Last Week
Strong earnings reports proved to be a saving grace for the market in a particularly volatile week ended Jan. 31. According to T. Rowe Price traders, about 40% of S&P 500 firms (by market cap) reported earnings, with strong results from Meta Platforms META and Apple AAPL helping stocks rebound.
Yet, that could not save the S&P 500 from ending the week 1% lower. The Nasdaq Composite suffered a sharp decline on Jan. 27, driven by a sell-off in tech stocks following the emergence of Chinese developer DeepSeek.
DeepSeek's energy-efficient open-source AI model raised competitive concerns, leading to a near 17% plunge in NVIDIA shares that day. The index ended the week with a 1.6% decline. the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed a modest gain of 0.3%, according to FactSet, marking its third consecutive positive week.
Trade policy also influenced markets, as former President Donald Trump reaffirmed plans for 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada by February 1, along with a 10% levy on Chinese goods.
Coming to monetary policy, at its first 2025 policy meeting, the Federal Reserve held interest rates at 4.25%–4.50%, citing solid economic expansion and a resilient labor market.
On Friday, the Commerce Department's core PCE inflation report showed a 2.8% year-over-year rise for December, unchanged for three consecutive months. This remains above the Fed's 2% target.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy grew 2.3% in Q4 and 2.8% for the full year, slightly below forecasts but above the Fed's 1.8% long-run growth projection. Growth was primarily driven by consumer and government spending.
Treasury yields fell as bond prices rose, partly due to easing concerns over DeepSeek's AI disruption, according to T. Rowe Price traders.
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