Investor Trends: Most bought and sold shares & ETFs last week

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched their third consecutive weekly declines as renewed selling pressure hurt the AI complex, with aggressive selling into the weekend sending the Nasdaq-100 down 3.5% on Friday, now sitting around 9% below its all-time high struck earlier in October. By contrast the FTSE 100 closed higher on Friday to eke out its first monthly gain in three.

Sharp declines across some of the most popular AI-linked US stocks created buying opportunities for investors.

Alphabet topped the billing as clients loaded up on shares after it suffered a 12% decline after its earnings update disappointed investors. Whilst cloud and AI related revenues surged, its core search advertising business grew more slowly than investors hoped, whilst free cash turned negative for a second straight quarter at -$42.4bn, a figure that raised fresh fears about the pace of capex vs monetisation.

Alphabet logged its worst week ever, shedding $468bn in value, the second-biggest weekly market cap decline for any US stock, with only Nvidia's DeepSeek-driven loss in January 2025 the surpassing it. The stock has reversed 30% from its May all-time high above $400.

Intel was the next most traded name with clients similarly buying the stock after it cratered last week. Intel plunged 29% in a single session, its worst day since 1974, after it posted weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter on softness in its core PC market where shipments fell –4%.

ServiceNow jumped the rankings as clients bought the stock after it plunged by a third from $150+ to around $105.

Whilst clients generally bought into weakness in tech, they were net sellers of Tesla and SanDisk.

Clients were also buyers of HSBC shares after the stock fell on its earnings report, whilst Rolls-Royce attracted interest around the Budget's defence spending commitments.