Best-Performing Sector ETFs of 2025

The year 2025 began with post-election optimism and expectations of a strong first quarter. Instead, markets were hit by the rise of low-cost AI initiatives from China, the adverse impact on the U.S. Big Tech, Trump tariffs, sticky inflation, and persistently high interest rates. Stabilization in the market returned in the month of May after a tariff-led, turbulent April.

Market euphoria started to solidify from midyear, thanks to easing trade tensions. There have been three Fed rate cuts this year, with the action starting in September. That momentum faded suddenly when the longest U.S. government shutdown brought the fourth-quarter economic progress to a halt, and overvaluation concerns intensified in the AI space.

Even in mid-December, the AI market continued to face a tug of war between optimism and caution. Oracle’s $10 billion data center project in Michigan hit a roadblock (per Financial Times, as quoted on Yahoo Finance) after funding talks with Blue Owl stalled, weighing on tech stocks like Nvidia and Broadcom, while Micron’s strong earnings and upbeat AI demand forecast lifted its shares, highlighting the market’s mix of possibilities and perils.

Still, with all those worries, Wall Street has put up an upbeat show in 2025. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY has jumped 14.8% in the year-to-date frame (as of Dec. 17, 2025). The Nasdaq-100-heavy ETF Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 QQQ has surged 17.7%, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust DIA has advanced 13.2% in the year-to-date frame.

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few sector-based winning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of 2025.

Metal Mining

iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF SLVP – Up 189.9%

Global X Gold Explorers ETF GOEX – Up 172.7%

Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF COPJ – Up 114.3%

2025 can be easily tagged as a year of metals and mining. Be it silver, gold or copper – prices surged. While gold prices soared due to the year-long safe-haven demand (in a counter to Trump tariff threats and AI overvaluation concerns), silver and copper prices rose due to high industrial demand and supply shocks.

Metals like copper, lithium, nickel, and rare earths saw soaring demand from electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy, and AI-related technologies. Mining production couldn’t keep up with the rapid rise in demand. Since mining stocks often act as leveraged plays of the underlying metal, the afore-mentioned ETFs soared in 2025.

Shipping

Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF BWET – Up 154.3%

The underlying Breakwave Tanker Futures Index follows the near-dated futures market on a constant rolling basis. The daily rates for chartering a vessel to transport commodities have soared this year, with oil tanker rates flying 467% higher, as shippers were hit by repeated route disruptions and sanctions, as quoted on oilprice.com.

Rare Earth

Sprott Critical Materials ETF SETM – Up 83.6%

VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metals REMX – Up 79.6%

Many rare earth stocks climbed in 2025 as China tightened export controls in October and limited the supply of key elements like rare earth used in EV motors, magnets, defense tech and semiconductors. This created fears of shortages outside China. The restrictive export moves of China boosted rare-earth prices globally, boosting shares of miners and processors.

However, upon a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, in late October 2025, tensions eased.  China shipped 13% more rare-earth products in November (per Bloomberg) than in October, a sign of a more benign export regime.

Bitcoin Mining

CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF WGMI – Up 72.9%

Bitcoin prices soared from around $75,000 in April to a high of over $126,000 in October. When Bitcoin’s price rises, miners earn more — both from block rewards and from the Bitcoin they hold on their balance sheet. Higher BTC prices make revenue per mined coin more valuable, directly boosting profitability.

Cleantech

ProShares S&P Kensho Cleantech ETF CTEX – Up 71.6%

Clean energy and cleantech stocks grabbed investors’ attention this year. Some indices tracking renewable and green energy sectors reported much better returns compared with broader markets. Invesco Solar ETF TAN is up 40%, and Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF PBW has jumped about 49%. Rapid expansion of AI data centers has caused a surge in electricity demand, and to meet this insatiable demand, clean energy has come to the rescue. 

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

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