The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have increased by 2% today as US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent provided investors with a glimmer of hope in the trade war with China.
In a leaked transcript from a private briefing at a JP Morgan summit, Bessent told investors neither side saw the trade war as sustainable and negotiations hadn’t even started yet. He did warn that a deal could take some time.
- S&P 500 = +2.07%
- Nasdaq = +2.09%
- Aus dollar = -0.6% to 63.78 US
- Iron ore = -0.7% to $US98.65 per tonne
All eyes will be on the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) quarterly earnings results which will be released after the US markets close. The stock is up over 4% overnight, a small consolation for shareholders as the embattled car manufacturer is down over 40% year to date. Tesla has always been a true battleground stock with strong supporters and detractors.
One of the biggest supporters has been Cathie Wood of ARK Invest. Tesla is over 11% of her ARK Innovation ETF. Year to date, ARKK is down over 21%. SARK, an ETF created to bet on the holdings of ARKK falling, is up over 33% year to date.
Tech ETFs closer to home
Do you remember when Australian investors felt left out of the tech slang and so we created our own acronym, WAAX? WAAX stood for WiseTech Global Limited (ASX:WTC), Afterpay (now Block Inc (ASX:XYZ)), Altium Limited (ASX:ALU) and Xero Limited (ASX:XRO).
In early 2020, ETF issuer (and Rask podcast sponsor), Betashares jumped on to it and created the Betashares S&P/ASX Australian Technology ETF (ASX:ATEC) to track the then newly created index, the S&P/ASX All Technology Index.
You couldn’t read an ASX article at the time without reading the acronym WAAX and true to form the ETF launched at the peak of the hype and promptly fell. In a few short weeks the ETF declined by over 25%. Market commentators came out of the wood work to scoff at those who thought we could have anything that would resemble the mighty FANG.
Fast-forward to today and ATEC has returned 13.55%pa since inception (as at 31 March 2025). Tech has been one of the big losers on the ASX during the trade wars and year to date ATEC is down 15%.
ATEC offers investors a chance to diversify away from companies that dig holes, lend money and sell groceries. It’s something we will be looking closer into here at Rask.
