Best-Performing ETFs of October

Wall Street has put up a strong show in October.  The S&P 500 has advanced about 1.9% over the past month, the Dow Jones has gained 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite has surged about 4.2% over the past one month (as of Oct. 31, 2025).

Key Events of October

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few key economic and corporate events from the month of October.

Earnings Season

Of the 222 S&P 500 companies that have reported Q3 results so far, earnings are up 10.7% year over year on 8% higher revenues, with 83.8% surpassing EPS estimates and 77.9% topping revenue forecasts. Notably, 68.5% beat both metrics.

The Q3 earnings and revenue growth for these 222 companies show a clear acceleration compared with recent quarters. Moreover, the share of firms surpassing both EPS and revenue estimates is well above the historical average for this group.

Fed Rate Cut

Last week witnessed a Fed rate cut. By a 10-2 vote, the Fed slashed interest rates by a quarter percentage point for the second consecutive meeting this year, bringing its benchmark rate down to a range of 3.75-4.00% (per CNBC). The decision, though taken amid limited economic data due to the ongoing government shutdown, reflects the central bank’s intention to bolster economic growth and strengthen the labor market.

Signs of U.S.-China Trade Truce?

Hopes of easing U.S.-China trade tensions have also boosted investor confidence. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a meeting in Busan, South Korea. The two sides apparently reached an understanding to pause new trade tensions, including China’s rare-earth licensing regime, and to resume U.S. agricultural imports such as soybeans.

China will end investigations targeting U.S. companies involved in the semiconductor supply chain, according to a White House announcement, per Bloomberg, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.

NVIDIA Touches $5-Trillion Market Cap

NVIDIA NVDA is now the only company to have hit a $5-trillion market cap. NVIDIA is riding high on a deal spree. The company signed a partnership with U.S. Energy Department to build seven supercomputers using up to 10,000 Blackwell GPUs. NVDA is also partnering with Uber to produce 100,000 self-driving cars starting in 2027, and is also collaborating with Eli Lilly, Nokia, Cisco, T-Mobile, Amazon, Foxconn, and Caterpillar across AI, 6G and robotics.

Inside the Losing Gold Rally

Gold prices started to fall from late October. The gold bullion exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust GLD lost about 0.8% over the past week (as of Nov. 3, 2025) and retreated about 8.7% over the last 10 days.

The record-breaking rally in the precious metal finally hit a bump due to easing U.S.-China trade tensions, a stronger U.S. dollar, and technical signals suggesting the metal had entered overbought territory, according to Bloomberg as quoted on Yahoo Finance.

ETF Winners

Defiance Leveraged Long + Income AMD ETF AMDU – Up 97.7% in the Past Month

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shares surged 55.5% over the past month.OpenAI signed a strategic partnership with AMD, worth multi-billion dollars, in early October.This strategic agreement entails OpenAI deploying 6 gigawatts (GW) of computing power using AMD’s Instinct GPUs, in addition to including a warrant for OpenAI to acquire a stake of up to 10% in AMD (read: AMD-OpenAI Seal Deal: Your Signal to Ride the Wave With AMD-Heavy ETFs).

The Defiance Leveraged Long + Income AMD ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation, with a secondary objective of seeking current income. The fund yields 8.05% annually.

Global X MSCI Argentina ETF ARGT – Up 35.3%

Argentina’s Merval index jumped above 2,500,000, hitting February highs. The October 26 midterms gave President Milei’s coalition about 41% of the vote, strengthening his legislative power and boosting confidence in fiscal reforms, privatizations, and deregulation, which helped boost Argentina’s market, as quoted on Tradingeconomics.

CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF WGMI – Up 29.7%

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been grabbing attention this year due to higher institutional and corporate adoption. This has been benefiting crypto miners and crypto trading platforms. President Trump’s announcement about creating a crypto reserve also bodes well for the crypto ecosystem.

Global X Hydrogen ETF HYDR – Up 28.2%

The AI industry's expansion has led to an increased need for clean and sustainable energy sources, which includes hydrogen as a potential fuel. An IEA report said that by 2026, the AI industry is expected to consume at least 10 times the electricity demand it had in 2023, as quoted on a CNBC article issued in April 2024.

The hydrogen market is expected to grow massively. It could reach a valuation of $312.9 billion by 2030, marking a CAGR of 6.80%, per a markets and markets research report. Surging demand for low-emission and sustainable energy is driving the upside in global hydrogen stocks, per the markets and markets report.

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