As President Joe Biden marks 100 days in office, which US exchange traded funds (ETFs) had performed best since Biden’s inauguration?
President Biden was formally inaugurated on 20 January, 2021, taking over from former President Donald Trump. Since being inaugurated, the US had administered over 200 million COVID-19 vaccines, had seen a fall in the unemployment rate, and the president had announced a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure spending plan.
He also had a higher approval rate than President Trump at the same time in his presidency and had unveiled significant environmental and climate change actions.
The top-performing fund was BetaShares Geared US Equity Currency Hedged which returned 19.8% followed by ETFS S&P 500 High Yield Low Volatility which returned 12.75%.
There were a further three funds which had seen double-digit returns; BetaShares FTSE Rafi US 1000 ETF (11.7%), VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (11.2%) and ETFS Ultra Long Nasdaq 100 Hedge (10.3%).
The S&P 500 index returned 8.7% over the same period while the North American equity sector within the Australian Core Strategies universe returned an average of 5.5%.
The worst-performing US ETF was BetaShares US Equities Strong Bear ETF which lost 19.19%. This fund was structured to perform well in market downturns so it was expected it would underperform in positive periods.
Raf Choudhury, head of investment strategy and research-Australia, at State Street, said: “As we roll up to 100 days of the Biden presidency, it would be easy to think that there has been little action from the new president but Biden and his administration have hit the ground running.
“He has announced the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September. Whilst a focus of his administration is to restore international relationships, he is also showing he will not be a soft touch. He has imposed a number of sanctions on Russia in response to what the US says are cyber-attacks and other hostile acts. And China remains on the radar with the US having blacklisted seven Chinese groups it accuses of building supercomputers to help its military.
“While some of his achievements thus far have garnered some headlines, COVID-19 is still the main issue that the world is contending with. Biden though has been quietly going about his work and in doing so has positioned the US to lead the way in the human and economic recovery from COVID-19.”
