Investors have been well-informed about the slump in biotechnology stocks that sent the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NYSEArca: IBB), the largest biotech ETF by assets, down 21% from its February peak to its April nadir.
Biotech stocks occupy significant percentages of some marquee health care ETFs, including the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLV), which pressured some of those funds and sent investors scurrying for the exits on once beloved health care ETFs. [Investors Flee Health Care ETFs]
While some of the biggest names among health care ETFs, a list including IBB and XLV, are still inflow positive on the year, arguably one of the biggest surprises is the Direxion Daily Healthcare Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: CURE).
CURE has pulled in $20 million in new assets this year and while that may not sound like much compared to the almost $305 million gained by XLV, that $20 million has been enough to quietly lift CURE into the $100 million in assets club.
Increased interest in CURE has previously been seen at the anecdotal level as the fund has made multiple appearances on ETF Trends’ weekly review of the most searched ETFs. [Health Care Leads Most Searched ETFs]
CURE’s ascent to $100 million in assets under management comes after the triple-leveraged fund was one of last year’s top-performing leveraged ETFs. [Best Leveraged ETFs]
Predictably, CURE suffered during the biotech repudiation. The ETF “seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of 300% of the performance of the Healthcare Select Sector Index,” according to Direxion.
That is the underlying index for XLV, an ETF that allocates 18.5% of its weight to the biotech industry. XLV’s peak-to-trough decline was about 7%. CURE did a little better than three times as bad as XLV, falling 19.7% from March peak to its April bottom.
CURE is up 19.5% year-to-date, slightly below triple the 7% returned by XLV.
Spotting the sources of CURE and XLV’s strength amid biotech’s struggles is not difficult. Just four members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up at least 10% year-to-date. Two of those stocks are Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Merck (NYSE: MRK), a combined 20% of XLV’s weight.
Direxion Daily Healthcare Bull 3x Shares
