Alistair Berg
The Schwab Trading Activity Index (STAX), a gauge that analyzes retail investor stock positions and trading activity from Charles Schwab’s (NYSE:SCHW) client accounts, increased slightly to 49.05 in May from 48.87 in April, leaving the measure in the “moderate low” range.
In all, Schwab (SCHW) clients were net buyers of equities during the five-week period ended May 31, 2024, it said on Monday.
Clients increased their exposure to technology-linked names, especially those pertaining to artificial intelligence chipmakers, said Joe Mazzola, head Trading and Derivatives Strategist at Schwab.
“Despite a significant amount of buzz, we didn’t see any of the so-called ‘meme stocks’ rising to the top of the most bought or sold names in May, although we did note that interest in those names was significantly greater among Schwab’s younger clients than it was across the general client population,” he added.
During the May STAX period, the S&P 500 rose 3.48%, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 5.07% and the Dow Jones advanced 1.7%, even on the back of headwinds from key inflation measures.
Popular names bought by Schwab (SCHW) clients during the period included Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Names net sold featured Apple (AAPL), Alibaba Group (BABA), Bank of America (BAC), Snap (SNAP) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).