Emerging Market ETF Rises 2.43% to Lead US Asset-Class ETFs; Gold ETF Falls 1.13%

The day's split is telling: emerging markets and growth-heavy equities led while gold and the VIX long ETF fell, a configuration that reads as risk appetite rather than hedging demand. The real signal is the breadth of the equity bid across emerging markets, the Nasdaq 100 and convertibles, which suggests the move was less about any single theme than about positioning. Whether gold's decline and the volatility unwind persist alongside that equity strength is the open question for gauging how durable this risk-on tone is.