Investors are in the final stretch of 2024, and many are moving money from the year’s big winners into the biggest losers. Bespoke Investment Group found that all 26 of the Russell 1000 stocks that were up more than 100% for the year fell on Monday. On average they lost about 5.1%. These include Nvidia — which shed over 2% after China launched a monopoly probe into the chipmaker — and AppLovin , which tumbled nearly 15%. The 25 biggest laggards in the index year to date had a much better day. Those stocks on average gained more than 3% on Monday. Wolfspeed , down more than 76% in 2024, jumped 6.6%. Electric vehicle maker Lucid rallied 10.9%, though it’s lost 39.4% for the year. NVDA WOLF 5D mountain NVDA vs WOLF 5-day chart “Rarely do we see such uniform performance in one direction based on prior performance in the opposite direction, but that’s exactly what we saw today,” Bespoke said in a blog post. “Investors were selling winners and buying losers to quite an extreme degree.” To be sure, Bespoke advised against making any “rash long-term investment decisions” after just one day of trading. “Sometimes it’s just opposite day in the market,” it said. However, it may be a sign of a larger trend taking place. “Nasty action for the momentum factor [Monday], as the reversal from the minor top discussed back on November 21st saw an acceleration through support into the close, with outside reversals in many leadership names and groups,” Wolfe Research strategist Rob Ginsberg wrote. “The factor is clearly stretched and at levels seen only two other times in the past 30-years — late 2002 and late 2008/early 2009,” he said. “Back then the factor was dominated by defensive companies and its reversal helped to mark the low following two major bear markets, but the composition today is vastly different.” Indeed, the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) dropped 2.1% on Monday. That marks its biggest one-day decline since Sept. 6, when it fell 2.2%. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Bernstein upgraded American Airlines to outperform from market perform Tuesday. “American Airlines [is] closer to a have than a have-not,” analyst David Vernon wrote in a note. “AAL’s ability to deleverage thanks to improving industry backdrop [and] new exclusive co-branded credit card deal enhances company outlook.” Vernon sees remunerations from American’s new credit card deal with Citi as a boost for the stock. “Looking further out, the benefits of such a sizable, consistent cash flow (terminal value est. ~$12B) changes the story for an airline critiqued for its high leverage. AAL’s ability to more easily pay down its debts enhances the company’s outlook,” Vernon wrote.
Investors are dumping their biggest winners this week, and buying losers