As the price of oil continues its upward momentum, oil and gas ETFs are benefitting from the rise, but one in particular, the Direxion Dly S&P Oil&Gs Ex&Prd Bl 3X ETF (NYSEArca: GUSH), is benefitting three times over.
As of 3:00 p.m. ET, the price of WTI crude is $69.30 and Brent crude is $73.93–both up from the previous day, $0.78 and $0.49, respectively. Prices got a boost from the United States and European Union agreeing to terms to avert a trade war.
“The market is very calm as it tries to assess the impact from the President Trump deal with the European Union to hold off on tariffs,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
A number of geopolitical factors have contributed to oil’s surge with the past year. The U.S. was exploring the option of tapping into their emergency reserves to stymie disruptions in oil supply, notably the slashing of Iranian oil imports. Additionally, the U.S. said it would impose heavy sanctions on Iranian crude buyers if they also did not trim their purchases to zero.
Furthermore, news broke that two Saudi Arabian oil tankers were attacked by a group of Iran-backed Yemeni rebels on Wednesday morning. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement that “Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe.”
Any disruptions in oil supply have been a boon to oil ETFs and the news regarding the Saudi oil tankers propped up GUSH by 1.68% compared to another oil ETF peer United States Oil (NYSEArca: USO), which is up 0.31%. The extra leverage allows GUSH to hit triples while other oil ETFs hit singles in the market.
Related: U.S. and European Union Avert Trade War
GUSH seeks investment results that equate to of 300% of the daily performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index, which is designed to measure the performance of a sub-industry or group of sub-industries determined based on the Global Industry Classification Standards (“GICS”)–a standardized classification system for equities.
300% of the daily performance means three times the returns–as such, Yahoo! Finance performance numbers show GUSH generated 94.96% for investors in the past year and 33.81% year-to-date–numbers that would make Daniel Plainview from the movie “There Will Be Blood” rethink his oil investing strategy.
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