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 Investors took tech stocks to new records despite rising coronavirus infections.
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 Exchange-traded funds with heavy exposure to delivery giants jumped Wednesday after FedEx reported better-than-expected earnings, sending the stock up more than 13% and on track for its best day since 1986. Shares of United Parcel Service, Inc. were 4.1% higher midday as well. The iShares Transportation Average ETF , with nearly 17% of its portfolio in the two names, was nearly 0.4% higher, beating the 0.2% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average . The Direxion Daily Transportation Bull 3x ETF, a leveraged product with more than 11% of its holdings in the two companies, was up 1.5%. A pure-play transportation fund, the SPDR S&P Transportation ETF, fell, despite having more than 5% of its holdings in those two companies, while the American Customer Satisfaction ETF , with just 4.5%, was up 1.3%. In the year to date, shares of the iShares transportation ETF and the SPDR fund have both lost roughly 17%.
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Video games aren't just games. They are also TV content, judging by the millions of people who watched some 1.75 billion hours of streamed video-gaming programming on Twitch, the live-stream platform for gamers, just in May alone. They're live events, too, with thousands of people showing up to watch top-level gamers face off in e-sports arenas. That makes video games big, big business. Consultant Research and Markets forecasts that the global video-game market will increase revenues at a 6.4% annualized rate between 2019 and 2024, when it will hit $179.1 billion in sales.
Work From Home ETF (WFH) Launches: What You Need to Know
Global X Video Games & Esports ETF is one of a handful of funds that allow investors to cash in on that growth. HERO sports a tight portfolio of 40 firms involved in developing, publishing, distributing or streaming video games, producing related hardware, or operating e-sports leagues or teams. The fund weights holdings by market value, so the larger the stock, the more HERO invests in it. Gaming is global, and so is HERO; it has 71% of assets invested outside of the U.S.
The ETF will only invest in companies that derive at least 50% of their revenues from video game-related businesses. That means you won't see tech conglomerates such as Sony and Microsoft in the fund. You will see graphics chipmaker Nvidia, whose products power high-end gaming rigs; Chinese internet and video gaming company NetEase; and familiar Japanese powerhouse Nintendo. "If it's a leading company in the theme, we want to own that company," says Pedro Palandrani, research analyst at Global X ETFs.
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The latest on stock market and business news during the coronavirus outbreak.
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