Finance1 min read

Wall Street’s wild ride delivers big paydays and bigger bruises

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Major equity benchmarks recorded strong weekly gains, with the S&P 500 rising 2.5% and the Nasdaq 100 gaining 3.5%, even as tech stocks suffered fresh setbacks. Turmoil accelerated following the sudden departure of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, yet investors still directed roughly $900 million into double-leveraged Nvidia ETFs. Meanwhile, wild fluctuations in two-year Treasury yields have handed trend-following funds their steepest drawdown of the year, underscoring fragile underlying market conditions.

Key points

  • Professional trend-following investors suffered their largest drawdown of the year due to…: Professional trend-following investors suffered their largest drawdown of the year due to extreme volatility in the bond market.
  • Speculative appetite remains persistent, marked by strong inflows into leveraged semicond…: Speculative appetite remains persistent, marked by strong inflows into leveraged semiconductor funds and heavy interest in Anthropic's planned initial public offering.
  • Portfolio managers warn of market complacency, urging shifts toward low-debt, cash-genera…: Portfolio managers warn of market complacency, urging shifts toward low-debt, cash-generating assets as ten-year Treasury yields threaten to stay above 5%.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Another rout in chipmakers dragged stocks lower Friday, even as inflation data eased fears of more aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes. It was the latest twist in weeks of violent reversals, with oil prices surging before dipping, bond yields lurching and the sudden downfall of Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang shaking one of the bull market’s biggest bets.

Beneath the relative resilience of major stock benchmarks, the difference between a windfall and a painful loss has often come down to market timing. The S&P 500 has moved an average of 1.6% a day so far in November and the Nasdaq 100 an even more bruising 2.4%, the largest average daily moves for both since the tariff turmoil of April 2025.

Bonds have offered little refuge. The two-year Treasury yield had climbed nearly 28 basis points this month before Friday’s retreat, following similarly large moves in opposite directions over the previous two months. A popular long-term Treasury ETF has endured its own reversals, while volatility in an iShares fund tracking the classic 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolio has jumped. Professional trend-followers have been wrong-footed,…

Finance