Here are the US shares ASX investors are buying

Tesla (TSLA) and ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) are amongst the US shares that ASX investors have been buying over the past 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 January 20, 2021 4:40 pm AEDT

Most weeks, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) CommSec brokering platform tells us the ASX and international shares (which usually just means US shares) that are the most popular with its Aussie customers.

My Fool colleague, James Mickleboro, already looked at the most popular ASX shares today.

CommSec is one of the largest online brokers in the country. Thus, this data can be an insightful indicator of general investing trends in the Aussie market.

So here are the top 10 United States shares CommSec customers were buying last week. This week's data covers 11-15 January.

A photo of high rise offices with share market graphic overlaid — Image source: Getty Images

Most traded US shares on the ASX

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 7.3% of total trades with an 80%/20% buy-to-sell ratio.
Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) – representing 4.8% of total trades with an 81%/19% buy-to-sell ratio.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.3% of total trades with a 75%/25% buy-to-sell ratio.
Churchill Capital Corp IV (NYSE: CCIV) – representing 1.6% of total trades with a 93%/7% buy-to-sell ratio.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) – representing 1% of total trades with a 57%/43% buy-to-sell ratio.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB)
ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK)
ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS: ARKG)
Zomedica Corp (NYSE: ZOM)
Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ: PLUG)

What can we learn from these trades?

As always, some interesting results here. Right off the bat, the dominance of electric car and battery manufacturers in Tesla and Nio once again continues to clean up investor interest here on the ASX.

We can probably put this continuing trend down to a combination of excitement over these companies' futuristic plans, and the sheer fact that both are up more than 1,000% over the past 10 months.

Traditional tech stocks like Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook also make a small resurgence. These companies have been put on the backburner somewhat in recent months as newer growth stories excite ASX investors.

Churchill Capital makes an interesting debut though.

Churchill is what's known as a SPAC (special purpose acquisition vehicle). This is a unique US corporate structure where a company is formed with the sole purpose of merging with an unlisted company in the future. SPACs have been growing in popularity over the last 12 months or so as an exciting alternative tot eh traditional IPO.

According to Bloomberg, Churchill has reportedly been enchanting investors over rumours that it is set to merge with an unlisted electric vehicle manufacturer called Lucid Motors. Lucid is apparently backed by the Audi Arabian sovereign wealth fund.

We discussed the emergence of ARK Invest exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on this list last week, so it's interesting to see ARKK and ARKG carry over this week.

Finally, Plug Power and Zomedica also appear for the first time. Plug is a hydrogen fuel cell company that is up more than 100% year to date. Meanwhile, Zomedica is a pharma company that is up more than 200% year to date.

Our Foolish colleagues over in the US recently (and salaciously) discussed how Zomedica may have been in a promotional scheme with Tiger King's Carole Baskin. No comment there.

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