Traders Dumped Levered Semiconductor Funds Just Before 24% Surge

ETF investors exited bullish bets on semiconductors last week, just before the sector staged one of its sharpest one-day rebounds in months as Wall Street cheers a US-China trade truce.

More than $340 million fled the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3x Shares (ticker SOXL), which offers triple-leveraged exposure to the industry, during the week ended Friday. That outflow — which marks SOXL’s third straight week of money rushing out — came just ahead of a 24% surge for the fund on Monday. The VanEck Semiconductor fund (SMH) also saw roughly $485 million in outflows last week, the most since the end of January, data compiled by Bloomberg show.