If you haven’t been under a rock, you likely watched Nvidia (NVDA) soar last week. The firm’s significant earnings beat and the promise of AI use in its future work sent its stock price swooning. That proved to be the key theme for ETFs over the last week, too, as semiconductor ETFs dominated in returns. While some had previously held concerns that semiconductor firms had grown too expensive, that failed to limit semiconductor ETF returns.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH ) took the top spot, returning 12.3% for the week. SMH tracks the MVIS US Listed Semiconductor 25 index and charges 35 basis points (bps) to do so. SMH has a significant lean towards the biggest names in the space, and NVDA of course takes the top spot at a 15.15% weight. Only Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) joins NVDA at a double-digit weight in SMH at 11.3%. SMH has added a robust $605 million in net inflows over the last month, as well.
Several other leading semiconductor ETFs join SMH in this past week’s top performers list. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX ) and the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXQ ) returned about the same, 11.6% over the last week according to LOGICLY. SOXQ charges a much lower fee at 19 bps, though it just launched in 2021. SOXX charges more at 35 bps but has more than two decades of operation under its belt. SOXX also weights NVDA higher than SOXQ, with NVDA the top-weighted stock in the former ETF.
Semiconductor ETFs took the vast majority of the top spots, but not all are explicitly focused on the powerful chips. The AXS Esoterica NextG Economy ETF (WUGI ) invests in the 5G-enabled digital economy in both developed and emerging markets. Focused on communications, WUGI does hold NVDA at 14.2%, its top holding, but also firms like Snowflake (SNOW) and Datadog (DDOG). Charging 75 bps for its active approach, WUGI returned 10.3% over the last week.
NVDA led the way for all the ETFs over the last week, and with the firm hitting new heights, investors will be watching for more semiconductor action.
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Beyond Basic Beta Channel.
Visualizations and data provided by LOGICLY, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of VettaFi.
