USO Rises on Oil, SMH Falls on Trump, Taiwan

3 Updates 
Wed, July 17, 2024 At 4:00 PM EDT
Kent Thune | Senior Content Editor |

Oil, Dividend ETFs Gain While SMH, Semiconductors Fall

Oil prices rose Wednesday as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) confirmed a decline in crude oil stockpiles for the week ending July 12th. Lower inventories suggest higher demand, putting upward pressure on prices, as the largest oil ETF, the United States Oil Fund (USO) jumped nearly 2%.

These factors outweighed concerns about slowing economic growth in China, which could dampen demand for oil.

The recent shift in investor sentiment away from growth stocks and toward more reasonably priced companies helped to lift Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) and iShares Core High Dividend ETF (HDV) by 1.3% and 1.7%, respectively.

The big losers of the day were semiconductor ETFs as U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned U.S. support for Taiwan. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell nearly 7% on the news. 

Wed, July 17, 2024 At 1:00 PM EDT
James Rubin | Contributing Editor |

Ethereum Token Rises; 21Shares to Charge 0.21% Fee on Spot ETF

The cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain has risen nearly 10% over the past week, part of a surge in wider crypto markets tied to the rising presidential prospects of Donald Trump, and as a likely approval of spot Ethereum ETFs nears. 

In a revised S-1 registration statement on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 21Shares said it would charge a 0.21% expense ratio on its proposed fund. 

21Shares also said in its filing that its 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF based on the ongoing price of ether, the second largest cryptocurrency with a $420 billion market cap, would use the ticker symbol CETH. 

It is the fourth asset manager among eight with spot Ethereum proposals before the SEC to announce their fees. Earlier this month, Invesco said it would charge a 0.25% fee for its ETF, and in late spring, Franklin Templeton and VanEck announced that they would charge 0.19% and 0.20% expense ratios. BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale filed updated prospectuses with the agency later Wednesday that listed their fees.

21Shares also charges a 0.21% fee for the spot bitcoin ETF that it jointly manages with Ark Invest. That fund has generated about $2.5 billion in inflows, according to U.K.-based asset manager Farside Investors. 

Ether, the token of the Ethereum smart contracts blockchain, was recently trading at about $3,400, up a little more than a percentage point over the last hour, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin slightly less than a percentage point over the same period. The 11 spot bitcoin funds currently trading have received more than $1 billion in inflows over the past three trading days after sagging in late June and earlier this month. 

Analysts widely expect the SEC to approve the spot Ethereum ETFs early next week and for the funds to begin trading perhaps as early as July 23.

 

 

 

Wed, July 17, 2024 At 10:30 AM EDT
Jeff Benjamin | Wealth Management Editor |

Biden, Trump comments knock tech & semiconductors back.

Unrest across the technology sector is rattling equity markets this morning, with big semiconductor exchange-traded funds falling as U.S. presidential candidates took aim at the Asian tech and semiconductor industries.

Tech bellwether, the $72.9 billion Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK), which holds semiconductor stocks including Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom Inc., dipped fell 3% in morning trading. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), more narrowly focused on chips, lost 4.1%

The drops follow the Biden Administration and Donald Trump separately laying out plans to tighten trade restrictions on companies that allow technology access to China and Taiwan.

The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell 2.3%. 

The volatility is most extreme across semiconductor and artificial intelligence companies with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. slumping more than 7%, while Nvidia and Broadcom both dropped more than 5%.

Blue chips were in the green, with the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) adding 0.2%.

Oil ETFs jumped with natural gas funds fell. Spot bitcoin ETFs were little changed.

/markets-monitor
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