The Best And Worst ETFs Of The Week Amid Currency Wars

The most talked about subject in the investment markets last week was the unexpected decision by the Swiss National Bank to relinquish the stop gap correlation between the Swiss franc and the euro. This led to wild swings in the currency and European stock markets as traders adjusted to the news.

Despite the overall gains in Europe, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY was unable to overcome additional volatility in the commodity markets and wound up falling nearly 2 percent last week. SPY hit its lowest level of the year on Wednesday and has shown a penchant for much greater intra-day swings than we experienced in 2014.

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

BEST: Swiss Franc

The aforementioned shot in the arm to the Swiss franc allowed the CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust FXF to jump more than 17 percent last week. FXF tracks the underlying daily price movement of the Swiss franc relative to the U.S. dollar and was catapulted to new 52-week highs in just two days.

The new correlation of FXF versus the PowerShares U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund UUP will be put to the test in the coming weeks as the potential for European quantitative easing makes an impact as well. This currency will be one to watch through the remainder of 2015 as more investors take note of new trends developing in the forex markets.

WORST: Copper Miners

The spot price of copper futures contracts fell to a new 2015 low as deflation in the commodity space continues. This led to a 14 percent decline in the Global X Copper Miners ETF COPX, which tracks a basket of 31 companies in this metals industry.

COPX fell more 19.56 percent in 2014 and has extended that slide in the early part of 2015. The continued strength in the U.S. dollar coupled with flagging global demand is just some of the reasons why this industrial metal has faltered.