The S&P 500 closed the week in strong form, helping U.S. equities to the first weekly rise in four despite a less-than-impressive January jobs report.
For the week, the three major U.S. indices all posted gains of at least 0.5%. Despite the gains for equities, commodities caught investors’ attention as several commodities exchange traded funds and exchange traded notes were among the most searched tickers on ETF Trends this week.
The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index ETN (NYSEArca: JO) was the most searched ETF or ETN on ETF Trends in the just completed. Helped by a drought in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer and exporter, and Lunar New Year festivities in Vietnam, coffee futures surged. JO was on fire earlier in the week, but some-profit taking on Thursday left the ETN with a 2.6% gain for the week, something of a disappointment given the way it performed Monday through Thursday. [Bad Weather in Brazil Boosts Coffee ETNs]
Three other commodities ETFs appeared in our top-10 most searched tickers: The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), U.S. Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNG) and the PureFunds ISE Junior Silver Small Cap Miners/Explorers ETF (NYSEArca: SILJ).
None of those are particularly surprising as gold ETFs have been boosted by some safe-haven buying while SILJ and UNG rank as two of this year’s 10-best non-leveraged ETFs. [Why This Nat Gas ETF is Lagging]