US fairness markets are shifting more cash than ever, with daily share turnover surpassing $1 trillion whilst volatility stays subdued — underscoring a structural shift in buying and selling exercise reasonably than a short-term surge pushed by market stress.
New information compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence present fairness turnover averaged a report $1.03 trillion in January, roughly 50 p.c larger yr on yr in contrast with the identical interval in 2025. Greater than 19 billion shares modified palms day by day through the month, the second-highest degree on report.
One clarification is simple: the rally itself. As inventory costs rise, extra capital is required to transact the identical variety of shares. The S&P 500 gained 15 p.c within the 12 months via January, mechanically lifting the greenback worth of buying and selling.
But the persistence of elevated exercise factors to deeper structural forces. Trading volumes have exceeded 15 billion shares per day for 13 consecutive months — a threshold that had been breached solely thrice earlier than 2025.
“There’s extra buying and selling from retail, pod outlets, hedge funds and market makers, whereas automated buying and selling is extra prevalent than ever,” mentioned Jackson Gutenplan, intelligence market-structure analyst at Bloomberg. “To a sure extent, buying and selling incentivizes extra buying and selling. Higher liquidity makes it simpler to enter and exit positions.”
Participation broadens regardless of valuation considerations
The leap additionally displays rising participation throughout each retail and institutional traders as US equities hover close to report highs. Nonetheless, the inflow is unfolding alongside considerations about stretched valuations, growing the stakes for traders crowding into the market.
Notably, final month’s surge in turnover occurred and not using a spike in volatility. The Cboe Volatility Index averaged 16.2, suggesting market calm reasonably than turmoil. Some analysts described the sample as proof of “robust, sustained liquidity” reasonably than episodic stress-driven buying and selling.
Throughout 2025, 93 buying and selling classes noticed volumes exceed 18 billion shares — about 37 p.c of all buying and selling days. In January alone, 14 of 20 classes crossed that mark, or 70 p.c, in contrast with 4 p.c of days within the earlier yr.
Structural shifts reshape market behaviour
Market members level to a number of structural drivers behind the surge, together with the rise of zero-day-to-expiry choices, deeper retail engagement through brokerage platforms resembling Robinhood and Schwab, and the continued growth of exchange-traded funds, all of which might amplify turnover.
Sector rotation additionally performed a task. Traders shifted away from megacap know-how shares towards lagging sectors resembling vitality, supplies and industrials, producing the sharpest market broadening in 5 years, in accordance with Société Générale.
With buying and selling volumes more and more decoupled from volatility, there are expectations from Bloomberg that elevated turnover to stay a defining function of US fairness markets. “Even within the absence of market shocks, we count on this heightened degree of exercise to persist.”
