ETF Winners & Losers As China Retaliates

Trade fears escalated with China taking retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s latest increase in tariff. China intends to impose as much as 25% tariff on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports effective Jun 1. Beijing has slapped a duty on around 5,140 products with waivers to some companies from the tariff increase, which could range between 5% and 25%.

The Chinese Ministry of Finance said 2,493 US goods will be hit by the 25% tariff; 1,078 items with a 20% tariff; 974 items with a 10% tariff and 595 items with a 5% tariff. Products such as cooking oils, frozen vegetables, wine, beer and other beverages, industrial minerals and chemicals, textiles and clothing, jewelry, metal products, machinery parts and consumer items ranging from home appliances to condoms will be taxed at higher rates (read: 5 Inverse ETFs That Gained in Double Digits Last Week).

The move has worsened the year-long trade friction between the world’s two biggest economies. Trump last week implemented a tariff increase to 25% from 10% on Chinese goods worth $200 billion and threatened 25% tariff on further $325 billion of Chinese goods "shortly."

The escalation in the trade spat between the two countries has triggered steep sell-off in the global stock market, wiping out more than trillion dollars from the market value in just one day. The European stock market lost 1.2% while emerging market shed 1.7% on May 13. Wall Street saw the worst drop with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 plunging 2.4% each. Both the indices logged in their worst day since Jan 3. The Nasdaq fell 3.4%, its biggest one- day drop of the year. This resulted in investors fleeing to low-risk assets.

Of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, technology suffered the most, given its significant exposure to China for revenues. Meanwhile, gold and Treasury rallied on safe haven demand. Notably, gold climbed above $1300 per ounce (read: Multi-Asset ETFs to Play as Trade Tensions Ebb and Flow).

That said, the renewed trade spat will lead to just a few winners but a number of losers from various corners of the investing space. Below, we have highlighted some of the ETFs that has gained and lost on May 13:

Winners

ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF VIXY – Up 14.6%

Increased volatility has pushed up volatility products. VIXY focuses on the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index, measuring the returns of a portfolio of monthly VIX futures contracts with a weighted average of one month to expiration (read: Volatility ETFs Spike on Renewed Trade Tensions).

Sprott Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) SGDM – Up 3.9%

Acting as a leveraged play on the underlying metal prices, gold miners tend to experience more gains than their bullion cousins in a rising metal market. This fund follows the Sprott Zacks Gold Miners Index.

AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Short ETF DWSH – Up 3.3%

DWSH is an actively managed ETF that short sells U.S. large-cap securities with the highest relative weakness within an investment universe.

AGFiQ US Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund BTAL – Up 2.2%

The fund invests in low-beta securities and at the same time shorts high-beta stocks of approximately equal dollar amounts within each sector. It seeks to deliver the spread return between low and high beta stocks. This can easily be done by tracking Dow Jones U.S. Thematic Market Neutral Anti-Beta Index (read: Bet on Low-Beta ETFs as Trade Fears Escalate).

Losers

ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF ARKG - Down 5.9%

This is an actively managed ETF, which focuses on the companies likely to benefit from the extension and enhancement of the quality of human and other life by incorporating technological and scientific developments plus improvements and advancements in genomics into their business.

VanEck Vectors China SME-ChiNext ETF CNXT – Down 5.5%

This fund offers exposure to the largest and most-liquid China A-share stocks listed and trading on the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Board and the ChiNext Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange by tracking the SME-ChiNext 100 index.

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services (NYSE:XES) ETF XES — Down 5.5%

This fund tracks the S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Select Industry Index, which measures the performance of the companies engaged in the oil and gas equipment and services industry.

First Trust Nasdaq Semiconductor ETF FTXL – Down 5.5%

This fund offers exposure to the most-liquid U.S. semiconductor securities based on volatility, value and growth by tracking the Nasdaq US Smart Semiconductor Index (read: Full-Blown Trade Spat: 5 Most-Vulnerable Sector ETFs & Stocks).

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VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext ETF (CNXT): ETF Research Reports

First Trust NASDAQ Semiconductor ETF (FTXL): ETF Research Reports

Sprott Gold Miners ETF (SGDM): ETF Research Reports

AGFiQ US Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund (BTAL): ETF Research Reports

ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY): ETF Research Reports

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES): ETF Research Reports

AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Short ETF (DWSH): ETF Research Reports

ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG): ETF Research Reports

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