Agency: Corporate executives in the United States are selling stocks at a record rate

On 17 July, United States corporate executives were selling stocks at the second fastest rate in more than 20 years. For some investors, this is a typical warning signal, as it means that those who know best about the business performance are cautious about the current market. According to EPFR Global Market Intelligence, in the first half of 2026, United States in-house sales of stocks valued at $77.6 billion increased by 20 per cent over the same period the previous year. Over the past two decades, sales were on a larger scale in 2021 alone, when markets were driven by massive stimulus funds during the epidemic. The EPFR analyst Winston Chua et al. wrote in their report that “transactions by insiders indicate that, at the current valuation level, business executives do not have a strong will to increase their stock holding stock”. In addition, the buying-in activities of insiders remain low. In the first half of 2026, they bought only $6.9 billion worth of corporate shares, which was only slightly higher than the seven-year low of $6.7 billion in the same period the previous year. Kim Xian