Summary
Last week, we commented that corporate insiders had little time to react to the tariff-induced plunge in stock prices that took place at the very end of the April 4 trading week. But that is old news, as a suspension of tariffs on April 9 sent stocks soaring, a pullback was evident on April 10, optimism kicked in on April 11, and tariffs were modified for many technology products over the weekend. Traders reacting to the daily news flow likely have unprecedented whiplash. But so do most other investors, insiders included. But as we said above, current weekly insider-sentiment data from Vickers Stock Research (complied before the weekend action on technology products) has morphed, and the change is exceedingly bullish. On a scale where any ratio below 2.00 is bullish, the neutral range runs from 2.00 to 6.00, and anything above 6.00 is bearish, Vickers’ Total One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is 1.31 (versus 2.72 last week). Drilling down to exchanges, the NYSE One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is 0.95, versus 2.14, and the Nasdaq One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is 1.99, versus 3.35. For comparison, the last time Vickers’ one-week data was this bullish was in November of 2023. On a sector basis, insider buying exceeded selling in Consumer Discretionary last week, with shares valued at $38 million bought versus $1.5 million sold. Buying was also notable in Healthcare, as shares valued at $18 million were bought versus $10 m
