Wall Street sees ‘buying opportunity’ amid AI pullback
Artificial intelligence stocks, a hallmark of the recent bull market run, have lost steam over the past month.
Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL,GOOG), and Amazon (AMZN) are all down more than 15% over the period amid a broader market sell-off that’s seen the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) decline more than 10% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) slid more than 8%. Even as investors have begun to question recent earnings results from the group, some strategists don’t think this is the end of the AI run.
“We keep our overweight to U.S. equities, driven by the AI mega force, and see the selloff presenting buying opportunities,” BlackRock Investment Institute wrote in a research note Monday night.
Recession fears have driven the market lower as investors speculate over whether the Federal Reserve is keeping monetary policy too restrictive. BlackRock describes these concerns as “overdone.”
“We think growth will be supportive of risk assets and believe markets are pricing in too many Fed rate cuts,” the team wrote.
Evercore ISI’s Julian Emanuel, who holds the most bullish year-end S&P 500 target on Wall Street at 6,000, isn’t backing down either. In a note to clients on Monday, Emanuel noted that the recent spike in the CBOE Volatility Index(^VIX), provides the opportunity for “patient buying.” Quick spikes in volatility, as seen on Monday, usually end with stocks higher a year later, per Emanuel.
He likens the current moment to the large drawdowns seen in tech stocks during the “1994-99 Boom bull market.”
“The rationale for AI, in a world where the global workforce is aging rapidly and efficiency will be critical to drive productivity enhancements, is greater than ever,” Emanuel wrote. “We view the current ‘AI Air Pocket’ as an opportunity to gain exposure to a long term secular theme.”
Still, if investors have been staying out of the large tech names because valuations have risen to an uncomfortable level, whether the recent drawdown has done enough to create an attractive buying opportunity is up for debate.
The equity research team at Goldman Sachs points out that while the basket of large tech stocks, including — Apple (AAPL), Amazon, Alphabet, Meta (META), Microsoft and Nvidia — is down 13% since July 10, earnings estimates have been moving higher. Since June 30, 2025 earnings estimates for all of those companies except Microsoft have risen.
This has brought a contraction of valuation multiples for the group of tech stocks, but they still trade slightly higher than the 10-year median average.
“The mega-cap tech stocks have dropped sharply, but their valuations continue to reflect AI optimism despite investor concerns about the likely timing,” Goldman Sachs chief US equity strategist David Kostin wrote in a note to clients on Monday night.
Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.
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