In the essence of keeping it real, second-quarter earnings will probably be ugly for many sectors and industries because the U.S. economy crawled to a standstill for all of April and a significant portion of May.

Now, another wave of coronavirus cases is sweeping across the country, hammering some large, economically important states, such as California and Texas. With just days left in the quarter, there's not much time for analysts to further pare earnings estimates. However, there are some sources of strength among exchange-traded funds.

“Although the vast majority of ETFs--both domestic and internationally-focused funds--continue to see earnings forecasts decline as a result of the shutdown-induced recession, there are a few bright areas,” said the ETF Research Center (ETFRC) in a recent note.

Here are three ETFs ETFRC says are home to companies with rising earnings estimates.

Brand Value ETF (BVAL)

The Brand Value ETF (NYSE: BVAL) tops the ETFRC list of funds with large concentrations of companies raising 2020 earnings estimates. On a percentage basis, BVAL the one-month change in 2020 earnings per share forecasts for BVAL components is about 27%.

View more earnings on BVAL

BVAL follows the EQM Brand Value Index, which is a collection of companies with superior brand recognition and loyalty. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) are among BVAL's top 10 holdings, confirming the fund is being driven by growth fare from a small number of high-flying sectors, but the strategy is working as BVAL is up almost 20% this quarter.

Roundhill BITKRAFT Esports & Digital Entertainment ETF (NERD)

Already one of this year's best-performing thematic ETFs, the Roundhill BITKRAFT Esports & Digital Entertainment ETF (NYSE: NERD) is proving to investors that there's money to be made in video game investing and the companies themselves are making money as the one-month change in NERD components' EPS estimates for 2020 is almost 15%.

NERD is up a staggering 54.57% in the second quarter and that ebullience isn't ill-founded. In fact, NERD is a prime example of an ETF that stands to benefit from states potentially renewing shelter-in-place policies. The fund and its components are already proving that gaming is a premier source of stay-at-home entertainment and there's no reason why that theme won't remain intact amid a second wave of COVID-19 cases.

VanEck Vectors Environmental Services ETF (EVX)

The VanEck Vectors Environmental Services ETF (NYSE: EVX) is the fifth of five funds on the ETFRC list as its components' average 2020 EPS estimate is higher by about 10% over the past month, a period in which the ETF is trading modestly higher.