Refresh all historical records and blow up the short positions! Last week, retail investors crazily bottom-fished U.S. stocks, especially NVIDIA

After being hit by the dual impact of DeepSeek and tariff policies, retail investors in the U.S. have found a good opportunity to buy the dip.

According to reports from several Wall Street investment banks, retail investor sentiment in the U.S. surged last week, with a significant increase in stock purchases, particularly concentrated in the technology and semiconductor sectors.

Data from JP Morgan shows that last week, the average daily fund inflow from retail investors exceeded $2 billion on two occasions, a level that has only occurred 9 times in the past three years. The fund inflows on Monday and Tuesday of this week even set new highs, reaching $3 billion and $4 billion, respectively.

The bank's retail sentiment index has reached an all-time high, surpassing the peak during the "meme stock" frenzy in 2021.

Data from Vanda Research also indicates that after the stock market decline triggered by the DeepSeek impact, retail investors injected approximately $4.25 billion in new funds into the U.S. stock and ETF markets within a week. Among them, the single-day inflow on Monday reached as high as $1.85 billion, with a five-day average inflow of $1.3 billion, marking the highest level since the 2024 U.S. election.

The technology sector is the most favored target for retail investors. JP Morgan's data shows that on Tuesday of this week, over 70% of retail funds flowed into the "seven sisters" of technology stocks. Among them, NVIDIA became a "retail investor hotspot," leading with a net purchase amount of $1.3 billion, while Tesla ranked second with $632 million.

Data also shows that after NVIDIA's stock price experienced its largest single-day drop since March 2020 last Monday, retail investors' net purchase amount for NVIDIA reached $562.2 million that day, setting a new single-day record; from last Friday to this Tuesday, the total net purchase amount by retail investors for NVIDIA has exceeded $1 billion.

JP Morgan estimates that since the beginning of this year, retail investors' return rate has reached 2.1%, although slightly lower than the S&P 500 index's 2.7%, it is significantly better than the flat performance of long-short hedge funds. Goldman Sachs also reported that retail buying pressure has been the main driving force behind the market's rise over the past two weeks.

Interestingly, while retail investors are buying aggressively, institutional investors are selling off in large quantities. JP Morgan's report shows that institutions net sold stocks worth $4 billion on Tuesday of this week.

Some analysts believe that the current market conditions are similar to the "meme stock" frenzy in early 2021, which may pose a bubble risk. Other analyses suggest that technology stocks like NVIDIA may face cyclical peaks and should be approached with caution