Despite a tough week for Wall Street, several leveraged ETFs posted impressive gains
New York: Last week was a bit of a downer for Wall Street. The S&P 500 dipped by 0.7%, the Dow Jones fell 1.1%, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.6%. This slump was mainly due to a rise in U.S. Treasury yields, which shot up after some positive jobs data came out. The yield started at 4.62% and ended at 4.77%.
Speaking of jobs, the U.S. economy added 256,000 jobs in December, which is the highest in nine months. This was a nice surprise since analysts were only expecting 160,000. The previous months saw some adjustments too, with a slight downward revision of 8,000 jobs for October and November.
In December, sectors like healthcare, government, and social assistance saw job growth. Overall, 2024 saw a total of 2.2 million jobs added, which is a bit lower than the 3 million added in 2023. Still, it shows that the labor market is holding strong.
On the economic front, the ISM Services Price Index jumped to 64.4, indicating rising inflation in the services sector. Plus, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed more job openings than expected, which might make traders rethink their predictions for Fed rate cuts in 2025.
Oil prices also had a good week, marking their best performance since July. The United States Oil Fund and the United States Brent Oil Fund both saw gains of over 4%. Meanwhile, consumer inflation in China is dropping, which raises concerns about demand, but reduced imports of Iranian oil have helped tighten global supplies.
Crude inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, are at their lowest since 2014, which is a sign of a tightening market. This, along with lower Russian shipments and increased demand for heating fuels due to cold weather, has pushed prices up.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the top-performing leveraged ETFs from last week. The ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas ETF (BOIL) surged by 31.3%. The 2x Long VIX Futures ETF (UVIX) was up 22.6%, while the GraniteShares 2x Long MU Daily ETF (MULL) gained 20.9%.
Other notable mentions include the Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares (YANG), which rose by 18.2%, and the Direxion Daily Real Estate Bear 3X Shares (DRV), up 13.4%. These ETFs really stood out despite the overall market struggles.
