{"id":811036,"date":"2025-02-10T12:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/schwab-trading-activity-index-january-score-kicks-off-the-new-year-with-a-slump\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T12:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:33:09","slug":"schwab-trading-activity-index-january-score-kicks-off-the-new-year-with-a-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/schwab-trading-activity-index-january-score-kicks-off-the-new-year-with-a-slump\/","title":{"rendered":"Schwab Trading Activity Index\u2122: January Score Kicks off the New Year With a Slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Schwab Trading Activity Index\u2122: January Score Kicks off the New Year With a Slump<\/b><\/p>\n

Schwab clients were net sellers in January, reducing exposure in the Information Technology and Communications sectors while net buying Energy, Real Estate and Utilities<\/i><\/p>\n

WESTLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE<\/a>)–
\nThe Schwab Trading Activity Index\u2122 (STAX) decreased to 49.45 in January, down from its score of 51.16 in December. The only index of its kind, the STAX is a proprietary, behavior-based index that analyzes retail investor stock positions and trading activity from Schwab\u2019s millions of client accounts to illuminate what investors were actually doing and how they were positioned in the markets each month.<\/p>\n

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20250210116868\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThe reading for the four-week period ending January 31, 2025, ranks \u201cmoderate low\u201d compared to historic averages.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSchwab clients took a fairly defensive approach in January,\u201d said Joe Mazzola, Head Trading & Derivatives Strategist at Charles Schwab. \u201cWe saw many responding to the month\u2019s sometimes-contradictory headlines and economic reports by rotating out of higher-beta names. When the markets took a dip mid-month, we didn\u2019t see the same kind of buying behavior we did during last summer\u2019s pullback, although later in the month, many did seem to take advantage of the opportunity to buy AI names at a discount. Clients appear to be taking a selective approach and are in large part proceeding into the new year with caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe S&P 500 stumbled out of the gate in January, losing almost 1% from the December closing level by mid-month amid inflation worries that drove the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield to a 14-month intraday high of 4.8% on January 14. Rising yields may have reflected concerns about policy proposals on tariffs and immigration from the incoming presidential administration, as well as the Federal Reserve’s hawkish December meeting and a stall in previous progress against inflation.<\/p>\n

\nRelatively benign U.S. December inflation data allowed yields to ease and the markets rebounded in mid-January after the new administration refrained from imposing immediate tariffs on imports from China and other countries. Solid earnings from major U.S. banks, airlines, communication services, and info tech firms helped the markets recover to new highs, and the 10-year yield dipped below 4.6%. In the final week of the STAX reporting period, however, the S&P 500 dropped about 1% after the January Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting featured a pause in rate cuts and news of China’s DeepSeek AI technology bruised AI-associated tech names.<\/p>\n

\nWall Street’s early January setbacks coincided with a mild increase in volatility. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) rose to just above 22 intraday on January 13, the day the SPX hit its monthly intraday low below 5,800 and down more than 1% from the start of the year. New restrictions imposed early in the month on U.S. chip exports led to tech weakness and rising volatility ahead of reports on consumer and producer inflation for December, both of which were ultimately relatively tame. The inflation data, along with solid earnings from major U.S. banks later that week, helped temper volatility, and the VIX fell below 15 in late January before rebounding above 22 on an intraday basis following the DeepSeek news that shook the market on January 27. The VIX flagged for the remainder of that week and closed the month below 18.<\/p>\n

\nPopular names bought by Schwab clients during the period included:<\/p>\n