Has the US stock market risen too much?…Seohak Gaemi Taking Profit Realization

Nasdaq Index Rises About 30% This Year, Stimulating Profit-Taking Desire
Seohak Gaemi Sell More Than Buy US Stocks in June

Seohak Ants are withdrawing funds from the U.S. stock market. This is attributed to the rapid rise in the U.S. stock market since the beginning of the year and increased uncertainty in the second half of the year. In particular, Tesla, the stock most purchased by Seohak Ants, has seen a sharp rise over the past month, leading to profit-taking and massive selling of Nasdaq stocks centered on technology stocks.

According to the securities information portal SaveRo, as of June, the amount of U.S. stock sales by domestic investors was $12.18752 billion (approximately 15.8937 trillion KRW), exceeding the purchase amount of $11.28314 billion (approximately 14.7143 trillion KRW). Not only did the sales amount exceed the purchase amount, but the scale of purchases itself also decreased. The purchase amount in June was about 55% lower compared to February 2021 ($24.84645 billion), when the U.S. stock market was booming due to COVID-19. It has halved in two years.

The stock most sold by Seohak Ants this year is Tesla. From January 2 to June 2, the scale of Tesla shares sold by Seohak Ants was $7.57305 billion (approximately 9.8692 trillion KRW). Tesla faced downward pressure after its Q1 earnings announcement in April but recorded a rise of over 40% in the past month. Investors appear to be taking profits. In fact, Tesla set a record for the longest consecutive rise by increasing for 13 trading days from May 25 to June 13.

Besides this, among the top 10 stocks sold by Seohak Ants this year, most individual stocks excluding exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were listed on Nasdaq. These include Nvidia ($2.91677 billion), Apple ($1.67653 billion), Microsoft ($1.0885 billion), and Alphabet ($1.07293 billion).

During the same period, the stock most purchased by Seohak Ants was the ‘Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X ETF (DIREXION DAILY 20+ YEAR TREASURY BULL 3X SHS ETF)’, with net purchases of $591.05 million. This product invests in long-term bonds over 20 years with 3x leverage. It is interpreted that investors flocked to bond investments, expecting that the base interest rate will no longer rise. Additionally, the ‘ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (PROSHARES ULTRAPRO SHORT QQQ ETF)’ and ‘Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X ETF (DIREXION DAILY SEMICONDUCTOR BEAR 3X ETF)’ were also net purchased with $403.9 million and $257.34 million respectively. These are ETF products that bet on a 3x leverage decline in the Nasdaq index and a decline in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, indicating that individual investors believe the Nasdaq index and semiconductor index have reached their peaks. In fact, the Nasdaq index has risen about 30% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index about 40% since the beginning of the year.

Seonghoon Seo, a researcher at Samsung Securities, diagnosed, “Recently, the New York stock market has shown a simultaneous weakness in large-cap technology stocks such as Tesla, Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia due to ongoing profit-taking pressure on technology stocks overall.” However, Namjoong Moon, a researcher at Daishin Securities, analyzed, “The aftershock of the June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is belatedly affecting the stock market, causing the U.S. stock market to take a breather. This is a healthy correction due to short-term overheating, which investors can view as an opportunity to increase their holdings.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.