Wednesday's ETF Winner and Loser: Small-Cap Returns

In spite of a tumultuous first quarter marked by a banking crisis and continued rate hikes from the federal reserve, the markets saw a bump today as the end of the quarter nears. 

By close, the Dow Industrial Average rose 1%, the S&P 500 was up 1.1%, and the NASDAQ Composite gained 1.8%.

In spite of a tumultuous first quarter marked by a banking crisis and continued rate hikes from the federal reserve, the markets saw a bump today as the end of the quarter nears. 

By close, the Dow Industrial Average rose 1%, the S&P 500 was up 1.1%, and the NASDAQ Composite gained 1.8%.

ETF Returns

We performed a screening of small-cap ETFs - defined as having Assets Under Management (AUM) between $300 million and $2 billion - to determine what funds gained and lost the most value over the last week, according to data from etfdb.com. Only non-leveraged funds were considered. 

Winner

ETFMG Prime Junior Silver Miners ETF SILJ

As of Wednesday, SILJ was up 7.96% on the week.

The fund targets small-cap silver miners and producers and is the first of its kind. Silver is an incredibly valuable precious metal as it is extremely useful in electronics and industrial applications. 

The fund’s largest holdings are Yamana Gold Inc. YRI and First Majestic Silver Corp. FR making up 13.57% and 10.67% of the fund, respectively.

SILJ is down 0.47% YTD.

Loser

United States Natural Gas Fund, LP UNG

As of Wednesday, UNG was down 11.64% on the week.

UNG is designed to track the movement of the price of natural gas, in percentage terms. The fund uses the futures contract on natural gas as traded on the NYMEX as its benchmark.

UNG’s marked loss on the week reflects the ongoing slide in natural gas futures, which have dropped by almost a ⅓ from earlier this month.

YTD, UNG is down 48.01%.