Wall Street was upbeat last week, with the S&P 500 advancing 1.7%, the Dow Jones rallying 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite rising 2.1%. Among key developments, signs of a regional banking crisis sent ripples through the market in the latter part of the week, but it soon recovered and posted gains to close out the week. Notably, the S&P 500 logged its best week since August, per MarketWatch.
Investors should note that U.S. regional bank stocks tumbled on Oct. 16, 2025, due to fresh signs of credit stress in the banking sector. Zions Bancorporation plunged 13% on that day and Western Alliance Bancorporation fell nearly 10% after both disclosed losses tied to troubled business loans.SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF KRE lost 6.2% on Oct. 16, 2025. However, the ETF KRE tacked on 1.6% gains on Oct. 17, 2025, suggesting strong levels of market complacency.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government shutdown dragged on. The shutdown is now the third-longest funding lapse in history (per CBS News).U.S.-China trade tensions also lingered. Trump announced that the United States would impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods starting Nov. 1 in response to Beijing’s plan to introduce export controls on rare earth minerals.
However, investors probably cheered President Donald Trump's recent remarks thatthe threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods were “not sustainable," as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Over the last week, relations between the two countries have soured, though both sides have sent mixed signals about the outcome of the dispute.
Winning ETF Areas in Focus
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning exchange-traded fund (ETF) areas of the last week.
Inverse Bitcoin
ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF BITI - Up 7.5% Last Week
Bitcoin prices lost about 4% last week as risk-on sentiments wavered occasionally. AI bubble fears have dominated Wall Street in recent weeks. Although tech stocks stayed steady, high-risk investments like Bitcoin failed to hold on to the winning momentum.
South Korea
iShares MSCI South Korea ETF EWY - Up 6.2% Last Week
South Korean stocks have been in a good shape lately, supported by optimism over the U.S.-Korea trade progress. Talks between South Korean and U.S. officials on shipbuilding cooperation under the July trade deal lifted sentiment for industrial and export stocks, per Tradingeconomics. Confidence was also boosted by Samsung Electronics’ $110-million investment in U.S. biotech firm Grail to expand its AI healthcare reach, according to Tradingeconomics.
Semiconductors
SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF XSD - Up 4.7% Last Week
Semiconductor stocks have been the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom. Chips facilitate data processing and model training at a massive scale. The more efficient the chips are, the faster and smarter the AI applications become. Recently, big semiconductor companies inked back-to-back big-ticket deals with AI companies, which has probably boosted ETFs like XSD.
Advanced Micro Devices ETFs
Roundhill AMD WeeklyPay ETF AMDW - Up 4.5% Last Week
The AMDW ETF seeks to pay weekly distributions and to provide calendar week returns, before fees and expenses, that correspond to 1.2 times the calendar week total return of common shares of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD.
AMD shares gained about 6% last week. AMD has been signing big AI deals lately. After it signed a notable deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, the company has secured a significant order from Oracle for its upcoming MI450 chips, strengthening its position to challenge NVIDIA in the fast growing AI processor market, per Bloomberg, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.
Clean Power
SPDR S&P Kensho Clean Power ETF CNRG - Up 3.5% Last Week
The underlying S&P Kensho Clean Power Index of the ETF CNRG is comprised of U.S.-listed equity securities of companies domiciled across developed and emerging markets worldwide which are included in the Clean Power sector.
Easing policy concerns related to alternative energy in the United States, the massive demand for energy amid the AI boom, cheaper valuation and the ongoing U.S. monetary policy easing have been driving the clean energy space.
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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): Free Stock Analysis Report SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE): ETF Research Reports SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD): ETF Research Reports iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY): ETF Research Reports SPDR S&P Kensho Clean Power ETF (CNRG): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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