Wall Street is banking heavily on exchange-traded funds that give investors artificial intelligence exposure, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The firm’s “Guide to ETFs,” which came out this month, finds it’s a top five theme by assets under management — even as volatility hit the group in the second quarter.

“Many [themes] are morphing towards AI and the ecosystem surrounding AI,” Jon Maier, the firm’s chief ETF strategist, told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.

Maier, who led the insights team that published the report, also highlighted an overlapping relationship between AI-themed ETFs and infrastructure.

“It’s all kind of feeding into the AI story … the applications, the energy [and] the AI models,” he said.

Go with the flow? ETFs vs. mutual funds

JPMorgan’s Guide to ETFs also found that mutual fund overall inflows are meaningfully tapering off while more money is flowing into ETFs.

“That’s only going to continue,” said Maier, who added the report’s data showed negative inflows into mutual funds overall during the past several years.

He also suggests that ETFs have become more attractive to retail investors because of the tax benefits.

“They typically don’t pay a capital gain [tax],” he said.

Maier contends mutual funds are a different story.

“Imagine if you bought a mutual fund in 2022 and you’re down 20%, 30%, 40%, depending on what part of the market you bought, and you still got a capital gain of 6%. You’re not happy,” he said.

The harsh winter storm that recently hit much of the country took its toll on the mortgage market in the week that followed. Potential buyers stayed home, and mortgage rates didn’t move enough to spark refinance demand.

Total mortgage application volume dropped 8.9% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Last week’s results included an adjustment for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, decreased to 6.21% from 6.24%, with points increasing to 0.56 from 0.55, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.

Despite the drop, applications to refinance a home loan fell 5% for the week but were still 117% higher than the same week one year ago, when rates were over 7%. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.1% of total applications from 56.2% the previous week.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 14% for the week and were just 4% higher year over year.

“Winter Storm Fern likely had an impact as much of the country was snowed in, hampering homebuying activity,” said Joel Kan, vice president and deputy chief economist at the MBA. “The annual increase in purchase applications was the weakest since April 2025.”

Mortgage rates moved higher to start this week, on a separate index from Mortgage News Daily. They are now at the highest level in two weeks, but that’s not saying much, as the range is tiny. Rates rose as the result of a stronger-than-expected report on the manufacturing sector.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the time reference for the recent winter storm.

The U.S. stock market was closed Thursday stateside for Thanksgiving Day and will reopen on Friday until 1 p.m. ET.

With approximately just 3 hours of trading left for the month, major U.S. indexes are looking to end November in the red, based on CNBC calculations.

As of Wednesday’s close, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% month to date, the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.29% lower during the same period and the Nasdaq Composite retreating 2.15%, vastly underperforming its siblings as technology stocks stumbled in November.

Unless there’s a huge jump in stocks during the shortened trading session on Friday stateside — which might not be an unequivocally positive move since it would raise more questions about the market’s sustainability — that means the indexes are on track to snap their winning streaks. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have risen in the past six months, and the Nasdaq Composite seven.

It will also mark a divergence from the historical norm. The S&P 500 has advanced an average of 1.8% in November since 1950, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. And in the year following a U.S. presidential election, it typically rises 1.6%.

But it’s not been a typical post-presidential election year. It’s hard to see the market, in the coming months, or even years, moving according to any historical trajectory.

U.S. futures are mostly flat Thursday night. The stock market was closed during the day for the Thanksgiving break in the U.S. Europe’s Stoxx 600 inched up 0.14%, rebounding from earlier losses.

Alibaba’s AI glasses go on sale. The Quark AI Glasses come in two variants that cost 1,899 Chinese yuan ($268) and 3,799 yuan, less than Meta’s $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, signaling Alibaba’s competitive entry into the consumer AI market.

Apple files a case against India’s antitrust body. The Competition Commission of India is investigating complaints about Apple’s in-app purchase policies, and could fine the company based on its global turnover — which means a potential $38 billion penalty.

Russia is ready for ‘serious’ discussions for peace. The U.S.-led framework “can be the basis for future agreements,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, as translated by Reuters. He added that the U.S. seemed to take Moscow’s position “into account.”

[PRO] Bank of America doesn’t see much upside for 2026. The S&P 500 should rise by a single-digit percentage point, a slowdown from recent years because one supporting factor will be shrinking, said a strategist from the bank.

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