Since the start of the year, investors have been vacating U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a broad-based, risk-off strategy that has benefited safe-haven assets like gold and silver, as well as global equities.
Much of that exodus can be attributed to a flight to safety, as inventors become increasingly bearish about tech’s ever-expanding AI-fueled capital expenditures and to a sell-off in software stocks. That has helped equal-weight ETFs outperform their heavily tech-weighted counterparts in the early goings of 2026, as the market’s rotation has bolstered defensive sectors like energy and utilities.
