Invesco QQQ Trust Sees Strong Gains and Inflows

Invesco QQQ Trust ( $QQQ ) has risen by 1.07% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net inflow of $4.34 billion.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation stays firmly at the center of the AI trade, even as its share price has cooled after a 30–35% year-to-date rise. Multiple top Wall Street analysts argue the stock now looks “unusually cheap,” trading at about 25x forward earnings—near the bottom of its 10‑year range and even at a discount to the broader semiconductor index—despite still-strong growth and rising earnings estimates. Tigress Financial and Bernstein both reiterate bullish calls, with price targets around $259–$350 implying roughly 40–90% upside over the next year, and the broader Street consensus sits at a Strong Buy based on about 40 Buy ratings. The investment case remains tied to Nvidia’s dominant position in AI data centers through its full-stack GPU, networking, and CUDA software ecosystem, plus a deep roadmap from Hopper to Blackwell and Rubin that could support a long-term AI opportunity management pegs at up to $500 billion. Regulators have just cleared Nvidia’s planned $5 billion investment in Intel, giving it added manufacturing flexibility as demand for AI chips runs hot, while ownership data show the stock has become a core market holding via big stakes from Vanguard funds and major ETFs. At the same time, geopolitical and competitive risks are rising: Tencent is accessing Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips via a Japanese cloud partner in a way that appears to sidestep U.S. export rules, drawing political scrutiny, and new rivals like Cerebras are preparing to challenge its AI hardware lead—factors investors will be weighing against Nvidia’s exceptional cash generation, expanding AI use cases in areas such as healthcare and robotics, and the Street’s view that recent share-price stagnation represents a buying opportunity rather than a peak.
• Apple Inc has re‑captured Wall Street’s attention as a classic product-cycle story, with analysts lifting their price targets ahead of what they see as a powerful multi‑year iPhone upgrade wave. Morgan Stanley now values the stock at $315 and calls Apple a top IT hardware pick for 2026, while Jefferies’ Edison Lee has raised his target to roughly $283 and projects that the company’s December 1QFY26 results will beat expectations, driven by iPhone 17 demand and November iPhone sales growth in China estimated above 40% year over year. Looking further out, Apple is planning to expand its lineup from five to at least seven iPhone models by 2027, including its first foldable device in 2026 and a premium 20th‑anniversary edition in 2027, and analysts expect higher average selling prices—potentially including a $100 bump on future Pro models—to offset surging memory and component costs while keeping margins strong even if unit growth slows. Lee argues that Apple is resilient to spiking memory prices because memory is a small slice of the iPhone’s total price, and believes pulled‑forward demand and richer configurations will support mid‑teens EPS growth in FY26 and solid gains in FY27. On the regulatory front, Apple is starting to open its ecosystem in response to antitrust pressure, allowing third‑party app stores and alternative in‑app payment systems on iPhones in Japan under the new Mobile Software Competition Act, though it will still charge reduced commissions and enforce security checks and age ratings on alternative marketplaces. Despite valuation concerns from some analysts, the Street’s overall stance is moderately bullish: Apple carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average 12‑month target around $299–$300, implying roughly 9–10% upside on top of a single‑digit percentage gain already logged this year as investors position for the next iPhone cycle and new device form factors.
• Microsoft continues to lean hard into artificial intelligence and gaming as its long-term growth engines, even as that strategy creates friction with users and internal leadership. The company is extending its Copilot AI assistant beyond PCs and productivity apps into consumer hardware, partnering with LG to bring Copilot to LG smart TVs—a move that initially alarmed users when it appeared the app could not be removed, before LG backtracked and promised customers would be allowed to delete the Copilot shortcut icon and that microphone features would require explicit consent. In parallel, Microsoft is reshuffling priorities in its Xbox division, skipping its usual “Xbox Wrapped” year‑in‑review feature this year amid reports that resources are being redirected toward major initiatives tied to Xbox’s 25th anniversary in 2026 and to heavy development workloads across titles like Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6, and Fallout content. Internally, CEO Satya Nadella is reportedly pushing executives to either fully embrace an AI‑first transformation—centered on its OpenAI partnership and AI platforms across the product stack—or step aside, underscoring the intensity of the cultural shift as Microsoft seeks to work faster and leaner. While these changes are demanding and unsettling for some long‑time managers, investors so far are rewarding the strategy: Microsoft shares have climbed high single digits over the past year, and Wall Street maintains a Strong Buy consensus with an average price target around $632 a share, implying roughly 30% upside as the company positions itself as a key infrastructure and software provider for the global AI build‑out.