We just published a list of the 10 Best All-Time High Stocks to Buy According to Wall Street and Xometry (NASDAQ:XMTR) ranked 9th on this list.
Wall Street’s leadership changed hands over the past month. The technology and chip stocks that carried the market through most of 2026 lost ground, while healthcare, financials, real estate, utilities and consumer-focused stocks took over.
The scoreboard showed it in mid-October. Healthcare led gains among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors and hit a record high, financials rose 1%, real estate climbed 1.7% and utilities added 1.2%, while technology slipped 0.3%. The S&P 500 value index gained 0.9% that day as its growth counterpart dipped 0.2%. Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, tied the move to doubts about AI payoffs: “Investors are looking for other opportunities outside of tech, and healthcare is one of the beneficiaries of that.”
Tech’s Slide Hands Leadership to Defensive Sectors
The rotation sped up in November. On Monday, investors moved into consumer cyclical, financial services and consumer defensive stocks, and the main technology sector fund was down 2.4% by mid-afternoon. Last Thursday, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell as much as 11%, its worst showing since March 2020, and the Nasdaq Composite slid into a correction, a drop of at least 10% from its record close in early October. The VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge, jumped more than 65% in a day. In short, money moved toward companies with steadier earnings and away from the most crowded trades.
Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said the pain was concentrated: “Anything related to AI is down more than anything not related to AI.” Our ranking of stocks sitting near all-time highs that Wall Street favors looks at names that have held up through the swings.
Why Strategists See a Handoff From Growth to Cash Flow
Samana described the shift as a change of buyers. The first wave of AI investors chased growth, he said, while a newer group wants companies with healthy cash flow, and he noted that many AI stocks are still not cheap. Will Compernolle, a macro strategist at FHN Financial, said the selling in chipmakers was sending money into Treasuries, and that investors were also rotating from chipmakers into the biggest spenders on AI data centers.
We covered the group that led October’s gains in our list of healthcare stocks that hedge funds favor. Not everyone reads the selloff as a verdict on the economy. Charlie McElligott, a cross-asset strategist at Nomura, said it reflected hedge funds locking in their 2026 gains rather than a worsening in fundamentals.
