Stock markets pulled back in November, as worries about an AI bubble persisted, along with concerns about a lack of visibility over the state of the US economy as official data releases were delayed due to the government shutdown.
President Donald Trump signed a funding bill on 12 November, which ended the longest US government shutdown in history, having lasted for 43 days.
Tilmann Galler, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management (JPM), said that even though the shutdown ended in mid-November, “market uncertainty regarding the ambiguous data environment, the impact on growth, and the progress of monetary policy weighed on sentiment”.
Meanwhile, AI bubble fears continued to loom over markets. “Excellent quarterly results from Nvidia (NVDA) failed to allay concerns about high valuations and fears of overly optimistic profit expectations surrounding the artificial intelligence ecosystem,” Galler said.
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More broadly, Galler said that strong earnings and revenue beats in the third-quarter earnings season “failed to ignite another leg up in the group or the broader US market”.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose just 0.2% in November, according to JPMorgan Asset Management’s monthly market review.
In the UK, the big focus for investors was the long-awaited autumn budget, which chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered on 26 November. Reeves announced £26.1bn ($34.8bn) of tax rises in the budget, which helped double her fiscal headroom to £21.7bn.
This offered some relief to investors, given how much fears had mounted over the size of a potential fiscal “black hole” in the lead up to the budget. Confirmation of where tax rises would come into place – and which areas had been spared from hikes – also offered more certainty to the public, following months of speculation.
Even so, the UK’s FTSE All-Share (^FTAS) advanced just 0.4% in November, according to JPMorgan Asset Management’s review.
Despite a rocky month for tech stocks, “Magnificent 7” giants remained among the most popular stocks with investors using Interactive Investor, Robinhood (HOOD) and Bestinvest’s platforms. Big-name FTSE 100 (^FTSE) stocks were also among investors’ preferred picks.
Here’s more detail on some of the stocks that proved most popular in November, according to investment platform data.
Despite AI jitters, chipmaker Nvidia has continued to be a firm favourite with investors, appearing on all three platforms’ most popular stock lists in November.
Nvidia released its much-anticipated third-quarter results on 19 November, beating expectations and offering a stronger-than-anticipated outlook.
The company posted third-quarter revenue of $57.01bn (£42.7bn) and earnings per share of $1.30. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $1.26 on revenue of $55.2bn, according to Bloomberg consensus data. In the same quarter last year, Nvidia reported revenue of $35.1bn and EPS of $0.81.
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In a statement, Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said that sales of the company’s AI Blackwell chips are “off the charts” and that its cloud graphics processing units are sold out.
For the fourth quarter, Nvidia (NVDA) projects revenue of $65bn plus or minus 2%, which was also ahead of the $62bn expected on Wall Street.
Shares initially rose following the release of the results, but then fell the following day as AI bubble fears resurfaced, though the stock is still up 34% year-to-date.
Another Mag 7 stock which appeared on Interactive Investor and Robinhood’s lists for November was Facebook-parent Meta (META).
Dan Lane, investment content lead at Robinhood UK, said: “Meta stock couldn’t avoid the market gloom despite AI boosting its ad targeting.
“Chunky spending plans (amounting to $70-$72bn in 2025 according to the company) signal a significant focus on the technology but the magnitude clearly made corners of the market uneasy over the month.”
Shares in Meta fell following the release of its third-quarter results at the end of October, as a one-time, tax-related charge weighed on the company’s earnings. The stock has failed to recover since then, leaving it less than 10% in the green year-to-date.
One of the most popular FTSE 100 (^FTSE) stocks in November was engineering firm Rolls-Royce (RR.L), which appeared on Bestinvest and Interactive Investor’s lists.
Shares saw some pullback in the last month, though the stock is still up 84% year-to-date, as investors have piled into defence-related stocks.
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Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: “After a stellar run for shares since the start of 2023, Rolls Royce shares suffered in November after some investors were left disappointed after the engine maker did not announce an extension to its share buyback programme.”
In a trading update on 13 November, CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said that Rolls-Royce had seen strong performance across the group. He said that this built further confidence in the company’s full-year guidance of underlying operating profit of between £3.1bn and £3.2bn.
Another UK blue-chip stock which appeared on both Bestinvest and Interactive Investor’s lists was insurer Legal & General (LGEN.L).
Shares in the company are only up 8.5% year-to-date but Interactive Investor’s Scholar said: “Legal & General is an ongoing popular choice particularly among income seeking customers too thanks to its attractive dividend yield.”
According to Interactive Investor, L&G has a dividend yield of 8.66%.
In its half year results, released in early August, L&G announced an interim dividend per share of 6.12p, up 2% in line the company’s guidance.
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) was another popular stock, despite uncertainty weighing on the sector in the run up to the budget.
In a trading update, released ahead of the budget on 12 November, Taylor Wimpey CEO Jennie Daly said that market conditions remained “challenging”, impacted by uncertainty ahead of the chancellor’s fiscal statement.
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However, the company continued to expect to deliver full-year UK completions and group operating profit in line with previous guidance. As of July, the company had guided to UK completions excluding joint ventures of between 10,400 to 10,800 homes and group operating profit including joint ventures of around £424m.
Even so, shares in Taylor Wimpey are still down 16.5% year-to-date.
Passive exposure to the world’s largest companies, including US Big Tech, remained a theme in the most popular fund lists of Interactive Investor, Bestinvest and Hargreaves Lansdown.
For users of Interactive Investor’s platform, the firm’s funds and investment education editor Kyle Caldwell said that ahead of the autumn budget “there was a move to dial down risk”. Royal London’s Short-Term Money Market fund (0P0000NRQO.L), which holds 71% in cash and cash instruments, was the most bought fund on Interactive Investor’s platform last month.
For active exposure to markets, investors continued to favour Artemis Global Income (0P0000W36K.L), which appeared on all three of the platforms’ most popular fund lists. The fund has generated a return of 45.3% over one-year, beating the 20% delivered by its benchmark, MSCI AC World Index.
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