Facebook Says Sorry after Saying It Removed Kenosha Militia Event When It Was the … Jobs that could grow during the pandemic and recession ETF Edge roundup: Experts talk Dow shakeup impact, Ant Group IPO, and the rise of SPACs
From the Dow’s most significant shake-up in years to the approaching Ant Group IPO to a newly revealed SPAC ETF, investors have a lot to watch in exchange-traded funds.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s the majority of included turnover in years entered into result Monday. The index swapped out long time component Exxon Mobil for cloud-computing beginner Salesforce, Pfizer for Amgen, and Raytheon Technologies for Honeywell.
When it concerns the ETF industry, there’s one significant fund tied to the Dow: the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA), kept in mind Todd Rosenbluth, senior director of ETF and mutual fund research study at CFRA.
With $23.4 billion in properties under management, DIA is “extremely small compared to the 3 biggest ETFs,” the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ( SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF ( IVV) and Lead S&P 500 ETF ( VOO), Rosenbluth said Monday on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
In contrast, SPY, the biggest ETF in the world, has more than $307 billion in possessions under management.
“If you believe about the smart-beta ETFs of development versus value, dividends, low volatility, the S&P 500 is the king of the index-based items rather than the Dow Jones Industrial Average,” Rosenbluth said. “But this does matter.”
The Dow’s switch was triggered mostly by Apple’s 4-for-1 stock split, which also took location Monday. That relocation took the Dow’s innovation exposure to 20.3% from 27.6%. With the addition of Salesforce, that’s now roughly 23.1%.
“The health-care exposure I think is what’s most noteworthy to us at CFRA. The weighting went from about 14% to 18% due to the fact that Amgen is taking Pfizer’s area in this price-weighted index [and] Amgen has a higher stock cost,” Rosenbluth stated. “It’s just a suggestion that ETFs are not fixed. You need to stick with them. However, this is not as huge as if it was tied to the S&P 500.”
Thematic ETFs on fire
Worldwide X’s suite of thematic ETFs is taking off, especially its tech-focused items. Here are a few of the greatest year-to-date relocations:
- The Video Games & & Esports ETF( HERO) is up 83%
- The Lithium & & Battery Tech ETF ( LIT) is up 72%
- The Cloud Computing ETF ( CLOU) is up 64%
- The Social Media ETF (SOCL) is up 54%
- The Robotics & & Expert System ETF ( BOTZ) is up 45%
- The FinTech ETF ( FINX) is up 36%
- The Millennials Thematic ETF (MILN) is up 29%
These are “not simply a flash in the pan due to the fact that of Covid-19,” but themes that could continue to become the 2030s, said Jay Jacobs, senior vice president and head of research study and technique at Worldwide X.
“Covid-19 has been an accelerant for a number of these styles,” he stated in the very same interview. “There were currently a lot of individuals that went shopping online, but individuals had no option but to go shopping online in March and April under stay-at-home orders. And there was a lot of individuals playing a computer game, however, people had nothing else to do when there were no live sports.”
“They’ve already been on these really strong natural development trajectories, but Covid-19 altered people’s practices and sped up the adoption of these themes such that growth is going much faster than we originally expected,” Jacobs said.
HERO, LIT, CLOU, SOCL, FINX, and MILN all hit record highs on Tuesday.

Accessing the Ant Group IPO
Ant Group’s upcoming IPO will be anything but tiny.
What might be the world’s largest public launching to date won’t be the most convenient listing for U.S.-based investors to gain access to. However some ETFs offer special methods to get in on the Alipay moms and dad’s stock, Rosenbluth said.
“Specific financiers would be hard-pressed to try to get direct exposure to a Chinese-listed IPO coming to market,” he acknowledged.
But, he added, with Renaissance Capital’s International IPO ETF (IPOS) or First Trust’s contending International Equity Opportunities ETF (FPXI), investors can get “direct access to this and … exposure to other recent IPOs and spin-offs.”
Renaissance Capital Chair Kathleen Smith informed CNBC’s “ETF Edge” recently that her company prepares to include Ant Group shares into IPOs “as early as after 5 days of trading.”
Ark Invest’s Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) might also be an under-the-radar winner here, Rosenbluth stated.
“This is an actively managed ETF and it’s worldwide in nature,” he said. “It currently owns companies like Tencent and Mercadolibre in addition to Lendingtree and Square within the leading 10 holdings. So, it’s logical that this is a location that they’ll be fishing.”
You check out that right: ETF provider Defiance has announced it will introduce an ETF for special function acquisition companies as the investing trend gains traction on Wall Street.
The Defiance NextGen SPAC IPO ETF, which will trade under the ticker SPAK, will be a one-stop buy share of these blank-check businesses. SPACs usually seek to combine with or acquire personal business within two years. Fifty-one SPACs, including popular names such as DraftKings, have raised an overall of $21 billion in 2020.
“SPACs are a structure much like ETFs are. They’re developed to bring companies out to IPO in possibly a more effective method because they give cost certainty to those businesses that are coming public,” Jacobs stated.
“The question, however, is what are they going to buy?” he said. “Are they going to purchase a driverless car and truck company? Are they going to buy a space expedition business? Is it possibly a more standard customer packaged good company? You don’t truly understand what they’re going to be.”
Jacobs’ advice to investors was to stay disciplined with SPACs in spite of their appeal.
“From an investment perspective, financiers may be smart to wait and see what those SPACs eventually become prior to diving in because, again, they’re simply a structure,” he said. “You don’t really know what you’re going to get up until they make their big purchase.”