Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Sees Inflows Amid Slight Decline

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( $VOO ) has fallen by 0.36% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net inflow of $3.01 billion.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation remains the market’s bellwether for the AI chip boom as it heads into earnings with analysts flagging strong demand for its next-generation Blackwell and Rubin platforms and a backlog that has “well exceeded” earlier expectations, underscoring sustained data‑center spending despite sector-wide supply and RAM shortages. While Intel’s weak guidance briefly shook confidence across AI chip names, Nvidia shares quickly stabilized and Wall Street still assigns the stock a Strong Buy rating with more than 40% implied upside, reflecting the view that it is best positioned to capture long-term AI infrastructure growth even if near-term volatility persists.
• Apple Inc is preparing to report its fiscal Q1 2026 results on January 29 with expectations for an 11.3% rise in both earnings and revenue, powered by resilient iPhone 17 demand, a rebound in China, and ongoing strength in its high-margin Services business. Supply-chain checks show iPhone shipments falling less than feared and PC and Mac trends improving, helping Apple retain the No. 1 global smartphone share at roughly 20%, though its stock is still down around 8–9% year-to-date. Analysts broadly rate Apple a Moderate Buy, seeing about 20% upside, but some—such as KeyBanc’s Brandon Nispel—warn that expectations for growth and margins in the second half of the year may be too high, leaving the near-term setup attractive but the longer-term bar elevated.
• Microsoft heads into its Q2 FY26 earnings on January 28 with investor sentiment firmly positive, as Wall Street looks for roughly 21% EPS growth and 15% revenue growth driven by powerful AI-led momentum in its Azure cloud business and early monetization of tools like Copilot. Despite only a modest 5% share-price gain over the past year and recent pullbacks tied more to sector-wide valuation worries than company fundamentals, analysts see Microsoft as one of the strongest large-cap AI plays, pointing to 37% expected Azure growth, a massive AI backlog that includes $250 billion in OpenAI and $30 billion in Anthropic commitments, and broad-based institutional ownership. The stock carries a Strong Buy consensus with an average target near $626—implying about one‑third upside—and is increasingly viewed as the most attractive of the “Magnificent 7” names for investors seeking stable, diversified exposure to the AI and cloud cycle.