Jefferies Reports Biggest Tech Selling Skew in More than Five Years

Technology stocks experienced their most heavily selling-skewed week in more than five years, according to Jefferies, as investors reduced their exposure amid a broad sell-off led by AI infrastructure company CoreWeave.

Intel was one of the bright spots for tech stocks in recent trading. [Photo: Intel Facebook]

Jefferies’ equity trading desk recorded $7.5 billion in net selling activity in technology equities for the week ended Friday, Oct. 16, up from a $5.5 billion selling skew before the market opened Friday, according to Jake Conley’s report for Yahoo Finance.

“Simply put, there’s a tremendous amount of angst in the market right now,” Jeffrey Favuzza, a technology, media and telecommunications equity strategist at Jefferies, wrote to clients.

He described a persistent and sharp reduction in investor exposure over several trading sessions.

The selling skew surpassed the level recorded during the “DeepSeek moment” in January 2025, when the release of a Chinese AI model intensified concerns about competition and the potential pressure on US AI companies’ revenues.

According to Favuzza, selling through Jefferies’ trading desk was concentrated in semiconductors, memory, hardware and communications equipment.

Horizontal software and information technology and information services were the only subsectors to record notable buying skews during the week.

The figures reflect activity observed through Jefferies’ equity trading desk rather than total market-wide outflows. The selling skew also does not, by itself, establish that investors have abandoned technology stocks for the longer term.