Yesterday, the Federal Reserve confirmed the general consensus by the capital markets that interest rates were likely to rise as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell capped off a two-day monetary policy meeting with the announcement that the federal funds rate would increase by 25 basis points to 2.25. This didn’t sit well for banks worried that the increased rates would pare down their lending businesses as the Direxion Daily Regional Bnks Bull 3X ETF (NYSEArca: DPST) lost 5.76% to end yesterday’s market session.
However, for the bears situated in positions like the Direxion Daily Regional Bnks Bear 3X ETF (NYSEArca: WDRW), they benefitted with a 7% jump and an additional 1.56% increase today as of 3:30 p.m. ET following yesterday’s interest rate announcement.
“Banking stocks closed lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates a quarter of a point, or 25 basis points, to 2%–2.25%,” noted Market Realist’s Andrew Brunton in an article. “That led to concerns of a further slowdown in lending.”
WDRW seeks daily investment results that equate to 300% of the inverse of the daily performance of the S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index. The fund invests in swap agreements, futures contracts, short positions or other financial instruments that, in combination, provide inverse or short leveraged exposure to the index, which is a modified equal-weighted index that is designed to measure performance of the stocks comprising the S&P Total Market Index that are classified in the GICS regional banks sub-industry.
