Tech’s Day of Reckoning Spurs Biggest Dip-Buying Rush Since 2021

Bloomberg
28 Jan

(Bloomberg) -- A punishing selloff in technology stocks on Monday spelled opportunity for dip-buyers prowling in the $11 trillion ETF arena.

As the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (ticker QQQ) sank nearly 3% on Monday, spooked by Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI progress, investors poured $4.3 billion into the tech-heavy fund — its biggest one-day haul since 2021. The same impulse drove a record $1 billion into the GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL), and almost $1.3 billion into the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3x Shares (SOXL), Bloomberg data show, despite double-digit plunges in both funds.

News that DeepSeek’s latest AI model was reportedly developed at a much cheaper cost than that of American firms such as OpenAI sent shockwaves through the tech and chip landscape. However, the ETF flows illustrate that the buy-the-dip mentality is still alive and well, even as investors question whether US tech giants are massively overspending on the AI build-out. With the S&P 500 at record highs, Monday’s selloff probably provided an entry point to those waiting on the sidelines, according to Sameer Samana of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

“I think there were quite a few asset allocators who have been trying to put money to work and yesterday was probably one of the first pullbacks since the inauguration,” said Samana, the firm’s senior global market strategist.

Equities rebounded on Tuesday, with futures on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 both in the green. Some of Monday’s biggest losers lead the early gains, such as Nvidia Corp. — after diving by 17%, the chipmaker’s shares were down about 1.6% at 9:43 a.m. on Tuesday.

But in the eyes of Peter Tchir of Academy Securities, there could be more pain ahead. Should Monday’s developments represent “a real potential shift in the underlying narrative,” then backing up the truck on tech stocks and chip designers won’t necessarily work this time around, he said.

“I get the ‘buy the dip mentality’ but given the potential change in narrative, this smells of froth that still needs to come out of the market, rather than prudent buying of things ‘on sale’,” Tchir said.

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