Best and Worst ETFs Of The Week Amid ECB Easing Measures

The markets managed to put forth another relatively flat week considering the deluge of headlines that prompted several intra-day price swings in the major indices. 

One of the much anticipated news events of the week included further cuts from the European Central Bank across its three main interest rates, as well as an announcement of further stimulus ahead.  This prompted a rally in European stocks and subsequent dive in the Euro currency. 

The following ETFs represent a sample of the best and worst performing funds over the last five trading sessions.

BEST: China A Shares and Cattle

The breakout in Chinese stocks this week coincided with additional positive economic data that indicated better than expected growth in their services sector.  That prompted a 6.5 percent jump in the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 500 China A-Shares Small Cap ETF (ASHS). 

This ETF tracks 500 small company A-share listings in mainland China and has been off to a fast-paced start since its introduction in May of this year. 

Another unrelated sector that saw a similar increase of over 6 percent this week is the iPath DJ-UBS Livestock Sub Index Total Return ETN (COW).  This exchange-traded note is designed to track the price of cattle futures and has been ripping higher since mid-August.  COW is one commodity that has been showing excellent relative strength on a short-term basis. 

WORST: Junior Gold Miners

Gold mining stocks experienced a difficult holiday-shortened week as a rising U.S. dollar and falling precious metals prices hurt this sector.  The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) felt the sting especially hard by falling 8 percent over the last five trading sessions. 

This ETF tracks 62 small and medium size companies engaged in gold mining operations around the world.  GDXJ currently has $2.4 billion in total assets and charges an expense ratio of 0.57 percent. 

Despite this recent fall, GDXJ is still sitting on a gain of 24.64 percent this year and may look to turn around its short-term weakness on a rebound in precious metals prices.