Best-Performing ETFs of Last Week

Wall Street delivered a mixed performance last week, with the S&P 500 adding 0.1%, the Dow Jones advancing 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite losing about 0.5%. However, the Nasdaq Composite bounced back on Friday as investors returned to major technology stocks, just a day after the sector triggered a sharp selloff on Wall Street, as reported on CNBC.

Let’s delve deeper into the key developments of the week.

Seesaw in Tech Stocks

On Nov. 13, 2025, key U.S. indexes recorded their worst single-day losses since Oct. 10. The Nasdaq slumped more than 2% as big tech stocks came under heavy pressure. The AI bubble concerns have been bothering the space for quite some time now.

Growing concern over lofty tech valuations intensified last week, mainly due to Oracle’s ORCL sharp decline. The selloff spread into other areas of the tech space. Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK was off 1.8% last week. However, the beaten-down tech stocks rebounded on Friday.

Oracle’s heavy dependence on its OpenAI cloud partnership, comparatively smaller cash reserves and heavy reliance on debt financing have intensified investor anxiety in recent weeks, as mentioned on CNBC. ORCL shares are down about 23% over the past month and 9.4% over the past week (as of Nov. 14, 2025).

End of Government Shutdown

The record-breaking U.S. government shutdown, which lasted more than six weeks, ended on the evening of Nov. 12, 2025. However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that some key data (like jobs and inflation) scheduled for release during the shutdown might never be published (per a CNBC article), making economic analysis difficult for policymakers.

Decline in Rate-Cut Expectations

Pressure on equities has also been built by receding expectations of a Fed rate cut in December. Traders now assign a 43.6% probability of a December rate cut — down from 62.4% earlier in the week and 93.7% a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

The limited availability of key economic data points may hinder the Fed in properly analyzing the economy and considering rate cuts in December.

ETF Winners of the Week

Shipping

Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF BWET – Up 20.1% Last Week

The underlying Breakwave Tanker Futures Index of the fund follows the near-dated futures market on a constant rolling basis.The index provides long exposure to the crude oil tanker shipping market through a portfolio of near-dated futures contracts on indices that measure the cost of shipping crude oil.

Lithium Miners          

Sprott Lithium Miners ETF LITP – Up 17.8% Last Week

Lithium’s rally continued due to a shift in market sentiment from supply-related worries to optimism around rising energy storage demand, per mining.com. LITP shares surged 14.6% over the past month.

Inverse Crypto

Direxion Daily Crypto Industry Bear 1X Shares REKT – Up 17.3% Last Week

With risk-off sentiment mainly taking the upper hand last week and tech stocks seesawing, the crypto industry — which often reflects a risk-on mood — took a beating.

Biotech

Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF BBC – Up 8.9% Last Week

Biotech stocks have risen sharply since bottoming in April (as mentioned in Investor’s Business Daily). The space has rebounded on the back of regulatory tailwinds, easing trade tensions, Fed rate-cut hopes and cheaper valuations (read: Biotech ETFs Hovering Around a 52-Week: Here's Why).

Rare Earth     

VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF REMX – Up 7.7% Last Week

Rare earths are needed in high-tech, defense and clean-energy industries. China has a huge source of rare earth elements. Rising global demand for critical minerals and most governments’ initiatives to ensure a domestic supply chain have boosted the space.

Recent U.S.–China trade tensions over procuring rare earth elements have also put a spotlight on the space. In fact, a rare-earth deal between the United States and China is expected by Thanksgiving, per Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as quoted on Reuters.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

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

Zacks Investment Research