Technology

Anxiety was on display on Tuesday, when the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.3% amid growing uncertainty about the eventual payoffs from massive artificial-intelligence investments. The S&P 500 declined 0.2%. 

“IPOs are inherently more volatile,” Amy Wu Silverman, head of derivatives strategy at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. Given the size and scope of SpaceX, “it is likely that the vol spread between Nasdaq and S&P remains wide until we close in on the inclusion of SpaceX into the S&P as well,” she added. 

The bank’s equity sales team recommends investors buy puts on the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF to express their bearish views on the tech sector. 

It's certainly good for index fund investors (e.g. S&P 500 index funds lile SPY or VOO) whose indices didn't recently get their index's rules rewritten for rapid inclusion of some of these IPOs relative to those who did (NASDAQ 100 index funds like QQQ or QQQM, or Russell).