12 Top-Performing ETFs in First Half of 2020

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The first half of 2020 — marked by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic — hurt most, but not all, companies.

But don’t look to the S&P 500, which declined by a relatively modest 3.1%, for evidence of the widespread damage, Sumit Roy, analyst and senior staff writer for ETF.com and ETF Report, wrote in a recent blog post.

Instead, look at the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, which was down 10.8% — maybe “a better indicator of this widespread damage,” he wrote.

Worse still were the losses incurred by these exchange-traded funds:

• Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 34.6%
• Financials Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 23.7%
• Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund: down 14.6%

Not all companies have suffered during the downturn, according to Roy. Some sectors — communication services, consumer discretionary, technology — are buoying the S&P 500  Index, offsetting the losses in other areas.

Roy noted that at the end of June, shares of Apple, Amazon, Zoom and others had hit new all-time highs.

“It’s an unusual situation: These companies are actually thriving in what is an extremely negative environment for most businesses,” he wrote.

Many ETFs with concentrated positions in these sectors have gained 30% or more year to date.

Check out the gallery to see the top-performing ETFs in the first half, according to ETF.com. See the rest of the list here.

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