Invesco QQQ Trust Sees Outflows Amid Resilient AI Leaders

Invesco QQQ Trust ( $QQQ ) has risen by 0.24% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net outflow of $5.69 million.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation remains at the center of the AI trade as analysts highlight booming demand for its next-generation Blackwell and Rubin data-center platforms, with order backlogs running well ahead of earlier expectations despite some sector-wide volatility after Intel’s weak outlook and fresh supply concerns. Nvidia GPUs continue to underpin new AI infrastructure deals, such as long-term H200 leasing agreements that are helping specialist cloud providers scale, while the broader semiconductor cycle shows signs of recovery and lengthening lead times into 2025–2026. Even with short-term jitters in AI chip stocks and pressure on memory supplies, Wall Street still assigns Nvidia a Strong Buy rating and projects over 40% upside, reinforcing its position as the market’s preferred way to play explosive growth in AI data centers.
• Apple Inc heads into its fiscal Q1 2026 earnings on January 29 with expectations of an 11% rebound in both revenue and profit, driven by resilient iPhone 17 demand, a stronger-than-expected Mac business, and ongoing expansion of its high-margin Services division. Recent smartphone data show Apple as the world’s top vendor with roughly 20% global share and softer-than-feared iPhone shipment declines, while supply-chain checks point to healthier builds and higher average selling prices in coming quarters, including a notable bounce in China. Still, the stock has lagged—down around 8–9% year-to-date—and some analysts warn that hopes for stronger growth and margins in the second half may be running ahead of reality. Even so, ownership remains dominated by large institutions such as Vanguard, and Wall Street’s overall stance is moderately bullish, with a Moderate Buy rating and roughly 20% implied upside as investors balance robust product momentum against tariff risk and margin pressure.
• Microsoft enters its fiscal Q2 2026 report on January 28 with investors focused squarely on whether its big AI and cloud bets can justify the valuation after only a modest 5% share-price gain over the past year and a recent pullback. Wall Street forecasts earnings growth of about 21% and revenue up roughly 15%, powered by Azure, where management is guiding to 37% growth as AI workloads ramp and enterprise adoption of tools like Copilot accelerates; massive long-term compute commitments from OpenAI and Anthropic underscore the depth of Microsoft’s AI backlog. While several brokers have trimmed price targets amid broader concerns about stretched software and AI multiples, those cuts largely reflect sector-wide de-rating rather than any deterioration in fundamentals, and ownership remains broad and institutionally anchored. The consensus view stays strongly positive: Microsoft carries a Strong Buy rating, analysts see about one-third upside to their average target, and among the “Magnificent 7” it is increasingly framed as the preferred large-cap AI compounder for investors seeking growth with relative stability.