By Anita Hamilton

The stock market has been in a funk ever since the Iran war started, with many retail investors hitting the breaks on new stock purchases. But they're still willing to open their wallets for select stocks in the tech sector.

The S&P 500 and Dow both slumped more than 2% over the past week. At the same time, non-institutional investors put 15% less cash into the market than they did in the prior week, according to a new research report from J.P. Morgan analysts. That works out to $5.7 billion invested overall during the week ending on Wednesday, March 18 -- well below the past year's weekly average of $7 billion.

Despite the pullback, people have no problem sinking more funds into Big Tech names like Nvidia, Micron, Tesla, and Microsoft. Investor money flowed into those stocks to the tune of $887 million, $367 million, $346 million, and $112 million, respectively, for the week. Micron reported stellar second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, with the memory chip maker smashing both earnings and revenue estimates for the period.

Buyers weren't indiscriminate on tech, however. The biggest outflows overall were in shares of Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon. Over the past week, retail investors sold $93 million, $91 million, and $70 million of each, respectively, according to the report.

Likewise, Exxon was among the week's biggest losers. After taking out $62 million during the week ending on Wednesday, March 11, retail investors withdrew another $41 million last week.

The Exxon exit is notable because the energy company's stock actually rose overall during the same period by 4%, to just shy of $158 a share. The retail pullback may reflect a broader uncertainty about the war's escalation and a possible economic slowdown if the conflict doesn't wind up soon. It could also mark profit taking while the stock is still moving up.

Investor fears were amplified Thursday when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that there was no time set for the conflict to end. "We're very much on track," he added.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com

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March 19, 2026 11:39 ET (15:39 GMT)

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