‘Marking Their Calendar’: Tom Lee Says Investors Don’t Have ‘Conviction’ to Buy the Dip Until After Midterms

Technology stocks have taken a beating over the past month, and Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee said many investors who want to buy the dip have decided to wait until after the midterm elections.

Voters head to the polls Tuesday.

Buyers Are ‘Marking Their Calendar‘

Lee told CNBC on Friday that institutional investors “just don’t have conviction until after midterms,” and that retail traders are waiting on the sidelines too, with a lot of doom saying about the election.

With so much riding on the outcome, many people are hesitant to buy the dip right now, he said, and “as strange as it sounds,” they are “marking their calendar until Nov. 3.”

Until then, he expects stocks to fall.

Plenty of Money

Lee said “someone” looks like they are getting liquidated, though he does not know whether it is an institution, and the drops are causing forced selling.

The equal-weight market is still rising, he said, so “there still is plenty of money sloshing around.”

Gridlock Worries Meet a ‘Clearing Event‘

Market commentator The Kobeissi Letter said Monday that October’s selloff is “more than just a correction in tech stocks,” and that investors are “pricing in two years of political gridlock.”

Polymarket traders give Democrats a 95% chance of winning the House and 78% of winning the Senate.

Last month, Lee said that a Democratic Congress “would be viewed as gridlock,” which markets tend to like, and that the midterms would be a “clearing event” ahead of the S&P 500 reaching 8,400 by year-end.

Since 1938, the S&P 500 has gained in about 95% of the 12-month periods after midterms, according to Fidelity Investments.

Price Action: The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) closed 0.48% lower on Monday at $752.1 and declined a further 0.1% in pre-market trading. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 1.36% to $681.09, but was up 0.4% in pre-market trading.

Benzinga Edge rankings indicate the State Street ETF has a Momentum score in the 63rd percentile, with a negative price trend in the short and medium term. In the long term, it has a positive trend.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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