Talk about a snap-back move. Momentum stocks, those characterized by faster growth expectations than the broader market, had their strongest one-day gain on Thursday since December 2000, Wolfe Research noted, pointing to the Bloomberg Pure Momentum Factor. The iShares MSCI Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) also jumped 5.5% Thursday, its biggest daily advance since April 9, 2025. The broader market followed suit. The Nasdaq-100 index popped 3.4%, its best day since May 12, 2025, when it jumped 4%. The S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.7% and 1.2%, respectively. The Nasdaq-100 “responded to its oversold condition catalyzed by [Microsoft] and fortified by ‘Leopold’s liquidation,'” which drove the Philadelphia semiconductor index up nearly 8%, and the South Korean Kospi index overnight “to it’s largest single day gain on record,” wrote Jeff DeGraaf of Renaissance Macro Research. “It was, in the vernacular, a mad dash for exposure.” .NDX 5D mountain Nasdaq-100 five-day chart Artificial intelligence investor Leopold Aschenbrenner was forced to unwind his hedge fund Situational Awareness’ public stock positions after taking big hits this month, CNBC’s David Faber reported, citing sources . Ken Griffin’s Citadel hedge fund reached a deal to buy the shares. Nebius , one of the biggest holdings for Situational Awareness at the end of the first quarter, surged 27% on Thursday. The fund also had large stakes in Micron Technology , CoreWeave and SanDisk — all of which rallied as well. Those are the kinds of moves you get when you “take an oversold environment for momentum (Momentum Washout Nears Completion), [and] mix in a highly publicized margin call and a little month-end rebalancing,” Wolfe strategist Rob Ginsberg wrote. Wall Street was set to build on those gains Friday, with stock futures pointing to a solid open. Nebius surged another 10% in early trading. There’s just one problem: “Dashes of that size have historically been the property of [a] downtrend, not the starting gun for a fresh race,” said DeGraaf.
