Invesco KBW Regional Banking ETF (KBWR)

NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., a leading specialist investment bank to the financial services and fintech sectors, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF), announces the upcoming index rebalancing for the fourth quarter of 2025. This quarter, there are constituent changes within six of our indexes: KBW Nasdaq Insurance Index (Index Ticker: KIX), KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index (Index Ticker: KRX, ETF Ticker: KBWR), KBW Nasdaq Financial Sector Dividend Yield Index (Index Ticker: KDX, ETF Ticker: KBWD), KBW Nasdaq Premium Yield Equity REIT Index (Index Ticker: KYX, ETF Ticker: KBWY), KBW Nasdaq Property and Casualty Insurance Index (Index Ticker: KPX, ETF Ticker: KBWP), KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index (Index Ticker: KFTX, ETF Ticker: FTEK.LN).

The first rate cut of the year gives investors the opportunity to position their portfolios to capture future upside in certain sectors, should further cuts occur. History has an uncanny ability to repeat itself, and it's telling us that we should target the financial sector.

KBWR is currently comprised of 50 U.S. stocks whose companies are primarily engaged in the regional banking industry, as determined by an Index Committee. KBWR primarily holds small-caps, while its counterpart, KBWB, handles the larger banks. Unfortunately for KBWR shareholders, it's those larger banks that have substantially outperformed over the last 14 years. A possible reason is that small commercial banks have a much higher loan-to-deposit ratio. After a brief reprieve in 2021-2022, the average ratio is back up above 80%.

We have highlighted five top-performing ETFs from different sectors that were the leaders in November.

Trump's win and the Fed's latest rate cut fuel the best week of 2024 for U.S. stocks. We have highlighted five ETFs from different areas that were the leaders last week.

Small-cap stocks have been in the limelight amid the market rotation. Many ETFs in the space are hitting new 52-week highs.

The US economy expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in the second quarter of 2024. Small-cap stocks generally lead the way higher on improving American economy.

Invesco KBW Regional Banking ETF KBWR is probably on the radar for investors seeking momentum. The fund just hit a 52-week high and moved up 46.47% from its 52-week low price of $39.9/share.

KBWR, QQQS, SVAL, EES and SBIO are included in this Analyst Blog.

Small-cap stocks have staged a strong comeback buoyed by the Trump trade resurgence and the growing expectations of the Fed cutting rates in September.

Bank ETFs soared to a new one-year high as the probability of Donald Trump returning to the White House has risen significantly along with a Fed rate cut in September.

Donald Trump displayed bold resilience after surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. This has led to a Trump rally.

Short sellers targeting a key regional U.S. bank exchange-traded fund have made $977 million on paper so far in 2024, data from analytics firm Ortex showed, as troubles at New York Community Bancorp rippled across the industry.

New York Community Bancorp surprised investors with what could be called a reset on Wednesday. The bank cut its quarterly dividend to 5 cents a share from 17 cents, set aside much more money to cover loan losses than usual and said it was working to raise its capital ratios to comply with regulations after growing in size to over $100 billion in assets, through acquisitions.

Given the decent valuation of the banking sector and chances of higher net interest rate margins, investors can keep track of these ETFs for gains.

So far this month, Wall Street remained almost flat. But a few ETF areas have been hovering at around a month-high and have been still gaining strength.