The Omicron selloff was the 2nd-biggest day of retail buying of US stocks ever, research firm says

• Retail buyers purchased a near-record $2.04 billion of stocks and ETFs during the November 26 market selloff.
• Vanda Research said that was the second-largest amount of net buying for individual investors.

Retail investors scooped up a near-record amount of stocks during Friday's market meltdown that was sparked by the emergence of a new coronavirus variant, according to research firm Vanda.

Individual investors bought $2.04 billion of equities and exchange-traded funds on Friday, the second-biggest day of net buying on record by that group, said Vanda, whose VandaTrack unit monitors retail investor activity in 9,000 individual stocks and ETFs in the US.

The single-day buying record remains $2.18 billion set on July 19, when rising infections from the Delta variant of the coronavirus sparked an earlier stock market rout. Vanda at that time noted that investors had hiked up purchases of ETFs such as the SPDR S&P 500 Trust and the Invesco QQQ Trust.

"Similar to what we saw after the Delta sell-off in July where the retail crowd also looked to snap up some bargains," is how Viraj Patel, Vanda's global macro strategist, characterized Friday's buying spree by retail investors in a tweet on Sunday. "Positive sign for US equity bulls," he wrote.

The US, the UK, Japan, the EU, and other government officials worldwide on Friday ordered bans and restrictions on travel from South Africa as the World Health Organization said the B.1.1.529 variant — now named Omicron — appeared heavily mutated.

News of the variant stoked worries that it would stifle the global economic recovery. The S&P 500 on Friday dropped 2.3%, its worst session since February 2020, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 905 points.

But US stocks during Monday's session bounced up as panic over Omicron appeared to ease. The S&P 500 was up by more than 1%.