Is this week’s volatility in U.S. stocks a buying opportunity? How to trade the S&P 500 Index? These are some of the questions investors may be thinking as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both plummeted this week on losses in technology and other stocks, with both indexes hitting their lowest levels since 2022 on Wednesday. Those losses continued Thursday, with the S&P 500 closing at 5,399.22 and the Nasdaq at 17,181.72. The market reversed course on Friday, but overall was still down from last week. The S&P 500 fell 0.83% this week, while the Nasdaq fell about 2% during the same period. Richard Clode said: “Recently we have paid more attention to US politics, with Trump becoming more likely to be elected president, which has driven the stock market rotation and raised concerns about the potential increase in Taiwan’s semi-finished products exports due to the trade war. He said: “There is an increasingly fierce debate about the sustainability of capital expenditures on artificial intelligence infrastructure if incremental revenue and profits from artificial intelligence do not bring a return on capital expenditures. . But he said it’s “just a matter of timing” because capital expenditures always precede returns, and he’s already seen “growth acceleration” in areas such as Google search and cloud computing. “While there has been some volatility recently,” he added has increased, but we wouldn’t say there’s been any significant incremental change in the company’s outlook in early reports to date. Paul Christopher, head of global market strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, believes the S&P 500 will reach 5,250 or 5,300 by the end of the year, but he is more optimistic about the outlook for 2025 – his target for the index is 5,800. That means That’s up about 6.2% from Friday’s closing price. Although Christopher said he was neutral on large-cap technology stocks last June, he would now look to return to large-cap technology stocks “if we get attractive enough prices in the future.” “We may look for some buying opportunities next week and may look at the sector,” he said. Brian Stutland, a portfolio manager at Equity Armor Investments, said he would wait for “complete panic” before entering the market. He told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday that amid the panic of last week’s sell-off, “there was probably a feeling that now was the time to buy.” “However, when we have a massive sell-off like we saw today. I’m sure there’s going to be some kind of rebound. In the short term, I’ll probably be more of a rebound seller and wait for this thing to come down a little bit,” Statland said. He is waiting for the VIX index (volatility index) to “break out” to levels around 20. “Then I’d probably try to find some bargains here so people can get back into this market,” Statland said. “When we see full-on panic in the streets, we look to rebalance. Today we’re looking at At one point. So maybe do it again and then I’ll consider stepping in,” he said Thursday. But Christopher warned that investors should avoid the recent shift away from large-cap stocks into small-cap stocks. “Large caps outperform small caps,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” Don’t be seduced by this move and stay away from small caps. “In the large cap space, large caps outperform small caps, large caps, large caps stocks outperformed mid-cap stocks and U.S. stocks outperformed international stocks. He is positive on overweighting stocks in the financials, industrials, health care and energy sectors. “We think these are good fundamental stocks. For what we expect early next year. As the economy recovers, (including) financial stocks will really take advantage of the opportunities we see from the Fed rate cuts,” he said. Stutland still believes in the artificial intelligence industry. “I still think artificial intelligence is playing a role. We’re just having some valuation adjustments in the market as things start to soften a little bit here and (in) some uncertainty, or as I said during the election That’s going to play out and definitely hit growth stocks,” he said.
