Summer Forecasts Push Natural Gas Prices Higher
ETFs tracking natural gas futures,Ether, and marijuana dominate the Canadian top performers for the week ending July 15th.
Natural gas ETFs led last week’s top performers propelled by hotter than expected summer forecasts. Similarly, Ethereum ETFs benefitted from positive industry developments while marijuana ETFs posted gains off the back of legislation news.
Hot Summer Heats Natural Gas Prices
The hotter summer forecasts overshadowed demand concerns sending natural gas futures prices soaring for the week ending July 15th. According to Natural Gas Intel, unseasonably hot upper pressure, with highs of 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, is expected over the majority of the United States for the rest of the month, likely resulting in strong demand for natural gas on a national level. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, uncertainty over supplies on the European continent helped retain the appetite for U.S. natural gas exports. Moreover, the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration report showed that inventories dropped well below their five-year average of 2.68 Trillion Cubic Feet (Tcf), currently standing at the 2.3 Tcf level. U.S. natural gas futures breached the USD$7/MMBtu, their highest in several weeks, while an ETF tracking natural gas futures prices led the Canadian top performers for the week. The Horizons NYMEX Natural Gas ETF (HUN) posted gains in the double digits last week, having jumped 14.20%.
ETFs in play:
Ethereum Still Rallying
The second largest cryptocurrency, as measured by market cap, was recently trading within a fairly narrow range, evidently breaking to the upside. Ethereum maintained its rally for the second consecutive week as its price soared 5.56% buoyed by the release of Ninth Shadow Fork, leading to the final stages of testing towards the migration to a Proof of Stake (PoS) validation mechanism. Another important update that the community received was the schedule for the release of Ethereum 2.0. This long-awaited event is expected to take place on September 19th, as revealed on Twitter by an ETH developer and Beacon Chain community health consultant. He added that the posted timeline isn’t final and may be subject to change, but acknowledged that it’s extremely exciting to see the merge coming together. Positive developments on the technical side and exciting news about the merge’s timeline pushed Ethereum ETFs higher. The USD (ETHH.U), CAD (ETHH.B), and Carbon Offset Non-FX Hedged (ETHH.J) versions of the Purpose Ether ETF soared 2.80%, 2.73%, and 2.73%, respectively last week. Similarly, the CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF USD (ETHX.U) and CAD (ETHX.B) booked a spot on the top performer’s list, having gone up 2.78%% and 2.27%. Last but not least, the Purpose Ether Yield ETF’s USD (ETHY.U) and CAD (ETHY.B) generated 2.62% and 2.55% in returns.
ETFs in play:
Marijuana Stocks Rising on Legislation News
Democrat senators are working to introduce a new bill in the Senate to decriminalize cannabis at a Federal level. The majority leader worked with the senators of New Jersey and Oregon to make some tweaks to the bill that was circulated last year. As soon as the market caught wind of the news, marijuana and cannabis stocks surged. As a result, investors and ETFs tacking Canadian licensed producers that have been expanding into the U.S. market benefitted the most. The Purpose Marijuana Opportunities Fund (MJJ) and the Horizons US Marijuana Index ETF (HMUS) popped into the Canadian top-performing ETFs list, posting 2.85% and 2.82% of gains last week.
ETFs in play:
Data for this article is as of July 15th, 2022.
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