Retail traders make some surprising moves in the latest week

Published Thu, Mar 14 202411:16 AM EDTUpdated Thu, Mar 14 202412:58 PM EDT

Everyday investors made eye-catching bets within big technology and other popular stocks this past week. Retail traders bought billions of dollars worth of cash equities over the past week on net, according to data compiled by JPMorgan's Peng Cheng. The biggest recipients include some underperforming megacap technology names, as well as a handful of other well-known equities. Cheng pointed to a shift within "Magnificent Seven" stocks, which is the group of megacap tech names whose outperformance has been credited with driving the broader market higher over the past several months. As the stocks have diverged in performance recently, Cheng said investors have been reallocating to the laggards. Specifically, he said investors appeared to be taking profits on Nvidia and Meta . It comes amid a period of strength for both, as shares have rallied more than 78% and 40%, respectively, in the new year alone, though the pair are off their highs by more than 5% each. With those gains, he said traders bought into Apple and Alphabet , which have both largely sat out of the broader market rally this year. Alphabet is up just about 2% compared with where it started 2024, while Apple has slid nearly 10%. .SPX AAPL,GOOGL YTD mountain The S & P 500 vs. Apple and Alphabet, year to date Notably, Apple was the second-most-bought security on net in the week at more than $1.4 billion. It came in behind only the SPDR S & P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) , which tracks the benchmark index. By comparison, investors bought more than half a billion dollars of Alphabet when accounting for outflows. Neither tech stock made the list of top 25 securities by retail net inflows in the previous week. Outside of Big Tech, Cheng noted, retail investors snapped up shares of beat-down Boeing , which is facing a crisis surrounding its 737 Max 9 models after a door panel blew out midflight. The plane-maker's stock has dropped about 30% this year, making it the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average . Broadcom was another big winner of the week, seeing more than $1 billion in net inflows. Part of that buy-in was likely tied to the semiconductor manufacturer's earnings report , as the company beat expectations on both lines for the first fiscal quarter and offered full-year revenue guidance that was basically in line with Wall Street forecasts. Costco also pulled in more than $400 million as investors cheered the wholesale club's earnings. Costco on March 7 reported better-than-expected earnings per share and strong February sales figures, though total revenue for the second fiscal quarter was lighter than analysts polled by LSEG anticipated. Broadcom and Costco have both outperformed the broader market this year, climbing more than 12% and 11%, respectively. On the fund side, the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) clinched slightly more than $400 million in average Joe dollars. Japan, which is tracked by the ETF, unexpectedly slipped into a technical recession as high inflation weighed on domestic demand. Still, the fund has advanced more than 8% this year. Here are the 25 stocks and funds that saw the largest net inflows during the week: