Cybersecurity funds led the week, up as much as 12.7%, as gold miners fell
A flaw in website software, disclosed Wednesday, and an Evercore survey on Friday lifted security stocks, while the Nasdaq-100 fund fell and gold miners dropped on Thursday and Friday.
Key takeaways
Leaving out leveraged and inverse funds, WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund, WCBR, rose 12.7% in the week ended Friday, Oct. 23, the best result. Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF, SGDJ, had the worst, down 12.3%.
Over the same five sessions, State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, SPY, fell 0.4%, and Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1, QQQ, fell 0.8%. iShares Russell 2000 ETF, IWM, rose 2.0%.
The five best and the five worst:
Security rose on a flaw and a survey
Cybersecurity funds took four of the five top spots. WCBR, with about $205 million in assets, was the leader.
First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, CIBR, the largest cybersecurity fund, with $17.8 billion in assets, rose 7.4%, short of the top five.
The four cybersecurity funds at the top of the list rose every session. For Global X Cybersecurity ETF, BUG, the two large days were Wednesday, up 3.8%, and Friday, up 5.0%.
On Wednesday, PHP, a programming language widely used for websites, released patches for two critical flaws known as PHP2Shell. ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, said an attacker could run code on a vulnerable server without logging in. CrowdStrike said it had verified that one anonymous request was enough.
On Friday, Evercore ISI said its quarterly survey of firms that resell security software found budgets getting stronger into year-end. The firm flagged the PHP flaws as a spur to security spending.
On Thursday, QQQ fell 2.9% and VanEck Semiconductor ETF, SMH, fell 6.0%, while BUG rose 1.3%. SMH ended the week down 2.3%.
BUG climbed all five sessions as SMH broke Thursday
- BUG · 112.61
- QQQ · 99.24
- SMH · 97.67
For the week, Zscaler rose 23%, Okta rose 13.8%, CrowdStrike rose 13.3% and Palo Alto Networks rose 11.3%. Fortinet, a top holding in BUG and CIBR, rose 6.4%.
CIBR also holds Cisco and Broadcom, about 14% of the fund combined. Both fell on the week, Cisco by 0.8% and Broadcom by 2.2%.
Zscaler led; Cisco and Broadcom declined
WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund, WCLD, the one fund in the top five that is not a security fund, rose every session and finished up 11.8%. State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF, XSW, rose 8.7%.
Gold miners fell on Thursday and Friday
SGDJ fell 7.0% on Thursday and 3.5% on Friday, after a quieter start to the week.
SPDR Gold Shares, GLD, the bullion fund, fell 4.0% on the week, and 2.6% on Thursday alone. VanEck Gold Miners ETF, GDX, fell 8.6%, about twice the drop in the bullion fund.
SGDJ and GDX sold off Thursday and Friday, further than GLD
- SGDJ · 87.72
- GDX · 91.44
- GLD · 95.97
USCF United States Natural Gas Fund LP, UNG, which holds natural-gas futures, fell 10.1%. The November contract settled Wednesday at $2.79 per million Btu, the lowest close since August 2021, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The security funds at the top of the list climbed all five sessions. The gold-miner drop was two sessions, and it went further than the bullion fund.
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