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FRIDAY VS TUESDAY

The seemingly unstoppable, AI-fuelled tech rally has in fact been stopped - at least temporarily - twice in the last few days.

The first sell-off came last Friday (and into Monday's Asia session), and was linked to Broadcom's AVGO.O outlook disappointing and U.S. jobs data coming in surprisingly strong.

Then, heavyweight technology stocks stumbled again on Wall Street on Tuesday with AI valuation worries, Middle East tensions and rising rate bets leaving investors shy about any risks.

But, while both sell-off iterations seemingly weren't based on a whole lot of news, there were differences between them, Jeffrey O'Connor, US head of market structure and sell side ATS strategy at Liquidnet, said in a note.

"While last Friday’s lacked volume to offer conviction, Tuesday’s is bringing a 25-30% jump in overall volumes," he said.

"And while Friday’s weakness did seem to be a position driven, momentum sell-off, Tuesday’s will garner more attention from that crowd with the certitude in both direction and volume to back it up; further exacerbating moves."

So Friday was about positioning, Tuesday more about convictions.

That begs the question, what might cause a potential third sell-off? Only time will tell.

(Sophie Kiderlin)

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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

POSITIVE START (CLICK HERE)

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: NOT YOUR EVERYDAY CEASEFIRE (CLICK HERE)

TECH AND WAR JITTERS SAP CONFIDENCE (CLICK HERE)