Thursday Sell-Off Hits Online Retail

The broad market pulled back on Thursday after the Fed hiked rates by 0.50% on Wednesday. Although the sell-off has been widespread, e-commerce ETFs plunged rather spectacularly, some due to bad quarterly results and others likely due to a report from Mastercard SpendingPulse that noted in-store retail spending was up 10% and down 1.8% year –over year in April for e-commerce companies. 

With the pandemic winding down, shoppers are heading to brick-and-mortar stores with less trepidation. 

Two large online retail ETFs were hit hard in midday trading as e-commerce stocks plunged in the wake of the news, with the $405 million ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN) down more than 7% and the $313 million Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY) down nearly 6% after noon ET.  

Wayfair, Shopify, Etsy and Poshmark saw their shares fall 8-22% in midday trading. The four companies represent 2% of the total weight of IBUY, while three of those four companies represent more than 7% of the portfolio of ONLN, which does not hold Shopify.  

(Use our stock finder tool to find an ETF’s allocation to a certain stock.)

Both ONLN and IBUY have been on a fairly steady downward trend for the past 12 months, with IBUY down more than 38% year to date and ONLN down nearly 32%.  

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]