4 ETF Areas Up At Least 5% Last Week

Wall Street was downbeat last week, with the S&P 500 losing 0.2%, the Dow Jones shedding 0.5% and the Nasdaq too retreating about 0.5%. The tariff war, the DeepSeek AI hype and the flurry of earnings releases were the key highlights of last week.

Tensions between the United States and China escalated after the United States implemented a 10% tariff on Chinese imports on Feb. 4. In response, China retaliated with tariffs on U.S. products, including a 15% levy on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and automobiles effective Feb. 10 (read: 5 Sector ETFs Walk a Tightrope Amid Trade Tensions).

DeepSeek, a Chinese startup developing AI models, grabbed headlines with the release of its new R1 model in late January. The company revealed that training the R1 model cost just $5.6 million, significantly less compared to the $100 million required to train OpenAI's GPT-4 model. This raised questions about the portability of the Big Tech’s AI investment.

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that offered handsome returns last week.

ETFs in Focus

Artificial Intelligence – Themes Generative Artificial Intelligence ETF WISE – Up 9%

DeepSeek or Big Tech, Ai is in fine fettle. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft intend to invest as much as $320 billion this year into artificial intelligence technologies.Technology companies are rushing to build out data centers and AI infrastructure to remain ahead of the competition. Amazon revealed the most ambitious AI investment plan, aiming to shell out $100 billion.

Natural Gas – United States Natural Gas Fund LP UNG – Up 7.9%

US natural gas futures rose nearly 10% last week. The increase was driven by higher LNG exports and colder weather forecasts, which could boost heating demand. Gas flows to LNG export plants also increased to 15.1 bcfd so far in February, up from 14.6 bcfd in January, nearing December’s record, per tradingeconomics. Looking ahead, meteorologists predict colder-than-normal weather through February 22, which will likely cause high heating demand (read: Why Natural Gas Demand is Soaring (and Why That Will Continue).

Copper Miners – Global X Copper Miners ETF COPX – Up 7.8%

Copper futures too rose more than 9% last week.Concerns about tightening supply from the world’s largest copper producer, Chile, caused the rally. Chile also forecasts rising demand for copper, thanks to the energy transition and electrical networks, which further fueled the price increase.Copper prices also benefitted from the recent weakness in the U.S. dollar.

Gold Miners – Sprott Gold Miners ETF SGDM – Up 6.7%

Gold prices have been hitting record highs thanks to safe-haven demand and a weal dollar. In particular, trade war fears and inflation concerns are currently driving the yellow metal higher, with many analysts expecting more upside in the near term. Additionally, strong gold buying from the world’s central banks and lower rates are supporting the gold price (read: Gold Rally to Continue: Leveraged ETFs to Make Profits).

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