Wall Street was downbeat last week, with the S&P 500 losing 0.2%, the Dow Jones shedding 0.5% and the Nasdaq retreating about 0.5%. The tariff war, the DeepSeek AI hype and the flurry of earnings releases were the key highlights of last week.
Tensions between the United States and China escalated after the United States implemented a 10% tariff on Chinese imports on Feb. 4. In response, China retaliated with tariffs on U.S. products, including a 15% levy on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and automobiles effective Feb. 10 (read: 5 Sector ETFs Walk a Tightrope Amid Trade Tensions).
DeepSeek, a Chinese startup developing AI models, grabbed headlines with the release of its new R1 model in late January. The company revealed that training the R1 model cost just $5.6 million, significantly less than the $100 million required to train OpenAI's GPT-4 model. This raised questions about the portability of Big Tech’s AI investment.
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that offered handsome returns last week.
Palantir-Heavy ETFs
Direxion Daily PLTR Bull 2X Shares PLTU – Up 71.8%
GraniteShares 2x Long PLTR Daily ETF PTIR – Up 71.5%
Palantir PLTR stock surged 39% last week. Palantir reported earnings of 14 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 11 cents on an adjusted basis. The company posted revenues of $827.52 million in Q4, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6.44%. The company projected its first-quarter and annual revenues to surpass Wall Street’s expectations. Palantir's AI platform, AIP, has seen increased demand driven by businesses eager to deploy generative AI technology.
Palantir is known for serving government entities, including providing software for military operations such as visualizing army positions. Despite its reliance on government spending, Palantir is focused on reducing this dependency and is gradually shifting toward commercial clients. The company expects its U.S. commercial revenue to grow at least 54% in 2025, reaching more than $1.80 billion (read: Palantir Soars on Solid Q4 Earnings, Cautions on DeepSeek: ETFs to Buy).
Super Micro-Heavy ETFs
Defiance Daily Target 2X Long SMCI ETF SMCX – Up 57%
GraniteShares 2x Long SMCI Daily ETF SMCL – 56.7%
Super Micro Computer SMCI gained about 33.7% last week despite delivering mixed earnings. The company reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 non-GAAP earnings of $6.25 per share, which surged 78.1% year over year but missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 22.2%. Revenues surged 143% on a year-over-year basis to $5.31 billion. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.3%.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Super Micro Computer expects total revenues of $6-$7 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $5.25 billion. For fiscal 2025, Super Micro Computer expects net sales of $26.0 billion to $30.0 billion. Upbeat guidance probably has boosted Super Micro stock last week.
Inverse Tesla
GraniteShares 2x Short TSLA Daily ETF TSDD – Up 23.6%
Tradr 2X Short TSLA Daily ETF TSLQ – Up 23.5%
Tesla (TSLA) shares dropped about 6.4% last week. Electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla (TSLA) reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings per share of 73 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents but increased from the year-ago figure of 71 cents.
Total revenues of $25.71 billion also lagged the consensus mark of $27.5 billion but inched up from $25.17 billion recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023. The earnings scorecard was enough to hit the Tesla stock hard. Moreover, Tesla raised the prices of its Model X cars in the United States by USD 5,000. Now, it is to be seen if this price hike hits the sales volume.
NVIDIA-Heavy ETFs
T-Rex 2X Long NVIDIA Daily Target ETF NVDX – Up 16.1%
GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF NVDL – Up 16.1%
NVIDIA shares gained about 13.8% last week. NVIDIA shares gained on the “buy-the-dip strategy” as the DeepSeek rout weighed heavily on the stock lately. Despite the turbulence, investors responded aggressively — many using leverage. On Jan. 27, NVIDIA plunged 17%, marking its worst decline since the early pandemic in 2020. Yet, the NVDL ETF, which amplifies Nvidia’s daily returns, attracted $1.6 billion in inflows in the last week of January. This suggests that investors intended to capitalize on the dip, even as losses in leveraged products were magnified (read: Should You Apply "Buy the Dip" Strategy in Tech ETFs?).
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