Spain- and Italy-focused ETFs come out ahead as the market looks for more ECB action.
The iShares MSCI Spain Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWP) was one of the best-performing ETFs in the week ended Thursday, Aug. 9, tagging on gains of more than 12 percent on hopes that Spain might be coming closer to finding a solution to its debt problem.
The market welcomed European central bank rhetoric that put on the table the possibility that the bank might buy troubled countries’ sovereign bonds—such as Spain’s and Italy’s—to reduce their borrowing costs.
The iShares MSCI Italy Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWI) was another fund benefiting from the news, rallying 11 percent in a five-day period with nearly 1 million shares trading hands on average a day.
The gains came while the Dow Jones industrial average rallied a much more modest 2.2 percent in the past week.
Equities-linked energy funds were also among the week’s strongest performers, with funds like the PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy ETF (NYSEArca: PSCE) tagging on gains of 11.1 percent, and the Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF (NYSEArca: FRAK) surging 9.9 percent.
On the flip side, volatility strategies were some of the worst performers in the past week, with the $1.56 billion iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX) bleeding more than 10.7 percent of its value amid a daily volume that averaged 33 million shares a day.
All in all, six out of the 10 worst-performing funds in the week ended Thursday were volatility-linked strategies.
Long-dated Treasury funds were also among the week’s worst-performing strategies. The Pimco 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury ETF (NYSEArca: ZROZ) and the Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF (NYSEArca: EDV) lost more than 5 percent of their value in the week.
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| TAN | Guggenheim Solar | 13.11% | 148,739 | 45.92 |
| EWP | iShares MSCI Spain | 12.18% | 2,175,736 | 184.50 |
| PSCE | PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy | 11.12% | 12,393 | 45.51 |
| EWI | iShares MSCI Italy | 11.01% | 4,700,152 | 163.11 |
| KWT | Market Vectors Solar Energy | 10.89% | 11,564 | 9.32 |
| FRAK | Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas | 9.91% | 16,023 | 22.16 |
| KOL | Market Vectors Coal | 9.67% | 1,236,836 | 193.42 |
| ARGT | Global X FTSE Argentina 20 | 9.63% | 21,255 | 3.05 |
| PICK | iShares MSCI Global Select Metals & Mining Producers | 9.56% | 18,269 | 4.07 |
| IGN | iShares S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking | 9.47% | 142,840 | 212.84 |
Bottom 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| VIIX | VelocityShares VIX Short Term ETN | -10.96% | 1,295,892 | 23.73 |
| VIXY | ProShares VIX Short-Term | -10.77% | 4,167,781 | 128.66 |
| VXX | iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN | -10.74% | 165,701,593 | 1,565.14 |
| VXCC | ETRACS 3-Month S&P 500 VIX Futures ETN | -7.89% | 1,500 | 5.39 |
| CVOL | C-Tracks Exchange-Traded Notes on the Citi Volatility | -6.64% | 157,507 | 5.73 |
| MOM | QuantShares U.S. Market Neutral Momentum | -5.80% | 8,500 | 5.07 |
| ZROZ | PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury | -5.69% | 804,536 | 142.65 |
| EDV | Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury | -5.20% | 119,828 | 216.78 |
| BTAL | QuantShares U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta | -5.13% | 74,317 | 28.90 |
| VIXM | ProShares VIX Mid-term | -4.89% | 107,625 | 96.60 |
Disclaimer: All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
