Leveraged ETF Areas of Last Week That Are Up At least 15%

Wall Street delivered a subdued performance last week. The S&P 500 has advanced about 0.3%, the Dow Jones has lost about 0.3% and the Nasdaq 100 has gained 1%. The alphabet-led tech rally and the Fed rate cut hopes boosted the growth investing segment.

Below, we highlight a few key events of the last week.

Inside the Tech Rally

Tech giants just had an epic week, adding $420 billion in market cap to reach a combined $21 trillion valuation (as quoted on CNBC) despite NVIDIA’s dip. Alphabet surged about 11.6% last week, and Apple gained 3.1% after a U.S. court handed Google a limited antitrust penalty, and allowed it to maintain its search deal with Apple (read: Alphabet's Stock Jumps as Antitrust Fears Ease: ETFs in Focus).

Although Alphabet was slapped with a $3.45 billion EU fine last week, investors paid more attention to the U.S. win.  Meanwhile, Broadcom soared on a new $10 billion customer, while Tesla rose on Elon Musk’s proposed pay package (per the above-mentioned CNBC article). The gains cemented Big Tech’s ruling position.

Downbeat Jobs Data

The U.S. economy added 22,000 jobs in August 2025, lower than an upwardly revised 79,000 in July and market forecasts of 75,000, as quoted on tradingeconomics. The data reinforces the softness in the labor market.

Jobs data for June were revised down by 27,000, and the change for July was revised up by 6,000. With these revisions, the previously reported employment data for June and July combined got cut by 21,000. The unemployment rate at 4.3% changed slightly in August, per the government data.

Job growth was mainly noticed in sectors such as health care (+31,000) and social assistance (+16,000). Job losses were also pronounced in wholesale trade (12,000) and manufacturing (12,000).

Fed Rate Cut Bet Strengthens

The Fed will likely cut interest rates in September after Chair Jerome Powell hinted at a reduction in his highly anticipated Jackson Hole speech. There are 89% chances (at the time of writing) of a 25-bp rate cut in September, per the CME FedWatch Tool, while 11% chances shifted to the 50-bp rate cut. A softer labor market has probably led the market in this pricing pattern.

 Winning Leveraged ETFs in Focus

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of last week (data as per tradingview.com).

Leveraged Gold Miners

MicroSectors Gold Miners 3X Leveraged ETN GDXU – Up 26.5%

Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 2X Shares JNUG – Up 20.1%

Gold prices have been steady lately, thanks to a higher safe-haven demand. As mining stocks often act as leveraged plays of the underlying metal, these leveraged gold mining ETFs surged higher.

Leveraged SoundHound

Defiance Daily Target 2X Long SOUN ETF SOUX – Up 25.1%

SoundHound AI Inc.(SOUN) stock gained about 12.3% lately. SoundHound has a strong presence inautomotive, enterprise, and restaurant/voice commerce verticals (quoted on investing.com).In early August, SoundHound AI reported a record second quarter, with all-time high $42.7 million revenues (per the company's press release). Revenues grew more than 200% year over year. The company raised its full-year outlook, too.

Leveraged Alphabet

Direxion Daily GOOGL Bull 2X Shares GGLL – Up 23.6%

T-Rex 2X Long Alphabet Daily Target ETF GOOX – Up 23.1%

Shares of Alphabet GOOGL jumped about 11% last week, following a federal court ruling. According to CNBC, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta overruled the harsh penalties proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) against Google, which would have forced the tech giant to divest Chrome. The company can make payments to companies to preload products, but it is barred from having exclusive contracts that condition payments or licensing.

Leveraged Broadcom

Leverage Shares 2X Long AVGO Daily ETF AVGG – Up 19.1%

Defiance Daily Target 2X Long AVGO ETF AVGX – Up 17.7%

Broadcom AVGO shares surged more than 9% last week. The stock soared on a new $10 billion customer, revealed on its earnings call. Broadcom offered an upbeat guidance too.

Leveraged Biotech

Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3x Shares LABU – Up 17.7%

Biotech companies often depend on equity and debt financing to raise funds. In a low-rate environment, the cost of capital falls, which is beneficial for the biotech companies. With the Fed rate cuts likely in September, biotech firms probably saw a surge.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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