Here are the US shares ASX investors are buying

AirBnB Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) were amongst the US shares that ASX investors were buying last week

Sebastian Bowen

Author Bio Sebastian Bowen has been a Motley Fool contributor since late 2018. Sebastian found his passion for writing and educating others about shares and all things finance after completing his studies in political, economic and social science and enjoys bringing this passion to life at the Fool. His investment philosophy is a simple one – buying high-quality companies at prices that make sense. When he’s not researching his next investment at all hours of the morning, Sebastian enjoys classic movies and likes to unwind with a good book, newspaper or record. Areas of Expertise Dividend investing ETFs Education Bachelor of Political, Economic, and Social Sciences (Government and International Relations), University of Sydney Social Media X/Twitter Favorite Investment Quote "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine." – Benjamin Graham

Published December 15, 2020 2:50 pm AEDT

Most weeks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (ASX: CBA) CommSec brokering platform tells us the international shares (which are almost always US shares) that are the most popular with its customers, along with the most popular ASX shares.

CommSec is one of the largest online brokers in the country. As such, this data can be a nice gauge of general investing trends in our market. This week's data covers 7-11 December.

So here are the top 10 United States shares CommSec customers were buying last week:

asx share price boosted by us investment represented by hand waving US flag across winning athlete — Image source: Getty Images

Most traded US shares on the ASX

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 9% of total trades with a 77%/23% buy-to-sell ratio.
Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) – representing 2.9% of total trades with an 80%/20% buy-to-sell ratio.
AirBnB Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) – representing 2.4% of total trades with a 97%/3% buy-to-sell ratio.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.3% of total trades with a 69%/31% buy-to-sell ratio.
Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE: PLTR) – representing 1.5% of total trades with an 83%/17% buy-to-sell ratio.
The next five most traded shares were these:
Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE)
Xpeng Inc (NYSE: XPEV)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA)
Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM)

What can we learn from these trades?

Well, a notable inclusion this week is AirBnB, which had a very publicised initial public offering (IPO) last week (meaning AirBnB launched on the share market for the first time). AirBnB shares rocketed as high as 142.6% at one point on IPO day, surging past the opening price of US$68. The following day, the shares climbed as high as US$165, but have since cooled somewhat and last traded for US$130 per share a the time of writing.

AirBnB is one of those 'unicorn' businesses, similar to Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER), that people right around the world have become familiar with long before they achieved 'public company' status. As such, these IPOs often attract a lot of attention. AirBnB was evidently no different, including for Aussie investors. We can see this on CommSec's list, where it usurped the No.3 spot last week.

In other news, electric car/battery manufacturers Tesla and Nio seem to be unstoppable. These 2 companies have been swapping the top positions with each other for most of the year, with Tesla stealing back much of the interest last week. That might have had something to do with Tesla's upcoming inclusion in the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), or perhaps Tesla shares appreciating more than 56% in the past month alone. Tesla trades were almost as popular as those of the other top 5 stocks combined, which says something.

Notably, only one of the famous 'FAANG' stocks made the top ten at all – Apple. It seems ASX investors are losing their appetite for Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook, at least for now. And almost a third of Apple trades were 'sells' (far more than the others).

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