US president Donald Trump's first 100 days in office have been marked by big swings in markets, as investors have tracked an unpredictable and fast-moving policy agenda.
Since Trump returned to office on 20 January, the US stock market and the dollar have fared worse than in the first 100 days of any other presidential term since 1980, according to Capital Economics chief markets economist John Higgins.
"The only other president to oversee a drop in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) during the first hundred days of a presidential term was George W Bush (on two occasions)," he said. "And during the first hundred days of their terms, just a handful of other leaders (Trump included in 2017) have presided over falls in the [US dollar] index, with none exceeding 3%."
The S&P 500 is down 5.3% since the start of the year, while the tech-focused Nasdaq (^IXIC) is down 9.7%.
Trump begun his second term by signing a wave of executive orders just hours after returning to office, signalling the rapid pace of policy moves that would follow in the president's first hundred days. The next couple of months saw a ramping up of policy activity on tariffs, culminating with the announcement of sweeping duties on what Trump called "Liberation Day" on 2 April.
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Trump appeared to row back on this a week later by announcing a 90-day pause on tariffs for many US trading partners. However, tensions have been escalating between the US and China, with back-and-forth moves on trade between the two countries keeping concerns around the economic impact of tariffs in focus and driving further stock market volatility.
Even so, many UK investors appear to have used this as opportunity to buy certain stocks. Data from platform Interactive Investor, showed that the buy-sell ratio of the most traded US companies during Trump's first 100 days was 62% buys and 38% sells.
Here's more detail on which US stocks were the most popular with investors in that period, according to data from Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell.
"Bargain hunting and riding momentum waves were two central themes for interactive investor customers in the first 100 days of Trump, as US equity markets dropped, and countries turned to inward-looking strategies in the face of rising geopolitical tensions," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.
Big-name US tech stocks have been particularly hurt by market volatility since the start of the year – first by concerns around the level of spending on artificial intelligence after Chinese startup DeepSeek released a lower-cost model, followed by tariff-induced nervousness in markets.
Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) has been at the centre of this choppiness, having fallen 21% year-to-date. However, that doesn't appear to have put investors off the company, which was the most popular US stock across all three platforms in Trump's first 100 days.
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DeepSeek's AI advancements has been one major headwind for the likes of Nvidia, with these concerns in focus going into the company's fourth quarter results in February, which failed to match up to investor's lofty expectations.
The stock has since declined further, with shares recently plunging after Nvidia said that the US government has required licences for exports to China of the company's H20 AI chip. The chip-maker said the move would result in a financial hit of $5.5bn (£4.1bn).
Investors will now be eagerly awaiting Nvidia's first quarter results, which are due out on Wednesday 28 May.
NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price • USD As of 1:54:28 PM EDT. Market Open.
In addition to Nvidia, another Magnificent 7 stock that was among the most bought in Trump's first hundred days is electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla (TSLA).
That's despite the backlash against Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his political activities, heading up Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseeing cuts to government agencies. Tesla sales have also fallen, with figures released earlier this month showing the company notched 336,681 deliveries in the first quarter, compared to expectations of 390,342.
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However, investors cheered the news that Musk planned to spend less time in Washington and more time at his electric vehicle company.
"Starting early next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] will drop significantly," he said in a post-earnings conference call last week.
However, Tesla's first quarter earnings missed estimates, with revenue of $19.34bn compared to expectations of $21.43bn, according to Bloomberg consensus. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.27 also came in below estimates of $0.44.
NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price • USD As of 1:54:27 PM EDT. Market Open.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks have been proved popular, including software firm Strategy Incorporated, which is the world's largest corporate holder of bitcoin (BTC-USD).
Trump's pro-cryptocurrency stance has helped boost the digital tokens, with bitcoin having topped the $100,000 mark in the run up to his return to office and following the inauguration.
However, bitcoin has since eased back and was trading at $96,195 at time of writing on Thursday.
NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price • USD As of 1:54:26 PM EDT. Market Open.
UK investors also appeared to use volatility in tech stocks to buy Amazon (AMZN), which was the fourth most popular stock on the three platforms' lists in Trump's first 100 days.
Amazon shares were up 4% in pre-market trading on Thursday, ahead of the release of its latest quarterly earnings, as better-than-expected results from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) boosted investor sentiment towards the tech sector.
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The company is expected to post revenue of $155.1bn for the first quarter, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates, which would be up from $143.3bn for the same period last year. Earnings per share for the quarter are anticipated to come in at $1.36, versus $0.98 in the first quarter of last year.
Amazon's first quarter earnings announcement follows a dustup with the White House earlier in the week, after PunchBowl News reported that the tech company was preparing to display the impact of tariffs on product prices.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the move "a hostile and political act" and Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos about the issue. Amazon has since denied it was going to add tariff pricing to its main e-commerce site.
Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) also appeared on all three of the platform's lists, which released solid first quarter results last week.
For the three months ending 31 March, Alphabet reported a 12% rise in revenue, reaching $90.2bn, while net income surged 46% to $34.5bn, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Both figures surpassed analysts’ expectations and marked an earnings beat for the ninth quarter in a row.
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Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said in comments published following the release of the earnings that Alphabet's "search business is trucking along while cloud computing remains on high power thanks to companies around the world rolling out AI services."
"Against an uncertain backdrop, investors might be alarmed by Alphabet sticking to its plan to spend $75 billion in capex this year across its business," he added. "That’s big bucks and the market will want to be sure it isn’t wasted money."
Fellow Mag 7 stocks Microsoft and Meta also featured in each of the lists, while other popular US stocks included data analytics software firm Palantir (PLTR), chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B).
In terms of what to expect from Trump's next hundred days, Capital Economics' Higgins said that it's "It is hard to predict the future given Donald Trump’s mercurial nature. But our best guess is that the next hundred days will be more favourable for the US stock market and the dollar than the last hundred days have been, as his administration’s focus shifts to fiscal policy."
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