When Did You Own Facebook?

By Brandon Rakszawski, VanEck Senior ETF Product Manager The Morningstar® Wide Moat Focus IndexSM (“U.S. Moat Index”) finished the month of April ahead of the broad U.S. equity markets as represented by the S&P 500 Index (4.65% vs. 4.05%, respectively). This followed a disappointing March in which the U.S. Moat Index lagged the S&P 500 Index by nearly 2%, due in large part to its exposure to biotech company Biogen Inc. (BIIB), whose share price dropped after announcing the discontinuation of its aducanumab Alzheimer drug trials. Strong performance from information technology and communication services companies fueled the April rebound, placing the U.S. Moat Index ahead of the S&P 500 Index on a year-to-date basis (18.69% vs. 18.25%, respectively) at month’s end. The Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Microchip Technology, Inc. (MCHP), and Facebook Inc. (FB) were among the top U.S. Moat Index performers in April. In fact, 37 of the 46 index constituents finished the month in the black while the majority of the negative performing constituents were from the struggling health care sector.