Most weeks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)'s share trading service CommSec tells us the most popular US shares that its Australian user base has been buying and selling over the previous week.
Since CommSec is one of the most widely used brokers in Australia, this trading data gives us an interesting window into what kinds of US shares Aussie investors are taking a closer look at.
So here are the top 10 US shares from CommSec last week. This week's data covers 23-27 August.
Alibaba shoots to the top of the pile
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) – representing 3.9% of total trades with an 86%/14% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 3.2% of total trades with a 65%/35% buy-to-sell ratio.
- GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) – representing 2.9% of total trades with a 78%/22% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.7% of total trades with a 74%/26% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) – representing 1.9% of total trades with an 86%/314% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE)
- NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA)
- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
- AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC)
- Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ: GOOG)
What can we learn from these trades?
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has shot to the top of the pile as CommSec's most popular share last week. The Chinese behemoth behind Alipay, AliExpress, and Ant Financial took home a total of almost 4% of all CommSec international trades last week.
It even pipped the perennially popular Tesla, the electric car and battery manufacturer helmed by Elon Musk. What's more, an overwhelming majority of 86% of all trades were on the buy side.
It's not hard to see why ASX investors might have suddenly developed an appetite for Alibaba shares. This company has been on a steep decline all year, losing around 24% of its value over 2021 so far. Alibaba is also down more than 44% from its all-time high from October last year. It seems a number of Australian investors are sensing a bargain buy here.
In other news, we still see enduring demand for shares like GameStop and AMC, long held up as examples of 'meme stocks'. GameStop shares are now up almost 40% over just the past fortnight, so it's easy to see where this optimism is coming from.
We also see continuing interest in the big tech blue-chip shares like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google-parent Alphabet. These companies have generally been hitting new all-time highs of late, but that's nothing new for the FAANGs.
Finally, it's interesting to see vaccine maker Pfizer here too. With 86% of trades on the buy side, it seems some investors may be so inspired by a recent vaccine that they have been compelled to invest in the company too.
