U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds slipped on the last day of trading after a stellar weak of earnings helped push markets back into the green, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq breaking to new heights.
U.S. stocks rose over April, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.3%, the Nasdaq Composite 2.2% higher and the S&P 500 up 0.9%. The Nasdaq Composite also managed to break above 6,000 for the first time ever, bolstered by strong technology sector earnings.
Over the past month, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO) rose 2.1% while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEArca: DIA) gained 2.2% and PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) increased 3.8%.
The best performing non-leveraged exchange traded products for the past month including the VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF (NYSEArca: SCIF) up 10.1%, ARK’s Industrial Innovation ETF (NYSEArca: ARKQ) up 9.7% and PowerShares S&P Small Cap Utilities Portfolio (NasdaqGM: PSCU) up 9.6%.
On the other hand, the worst non-leveraged ETPs of the past month include the iPath Bloomberg Cocoa TR Sub-Index ETN (NYSEArca: NIB) down 15.5%, iPath Bloomberg Sugar Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSEArca: SGG) down 14.5% and VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDXJ) down 14.2%.
The equities market largely remained in range bound, sideways action through the early part of April due to a mix of economic data.