Wall Street money takes back over from small investors as driving force of the stock market

Institutional investors are taking the wheel in the stock market. After years on a big buying streak, retail traders appear to be moving to the sidelines. At the same time, data from Vanda Research shows that big investors have held steady on stocks in the face of spiking Treasury yields. "Institutional investors have been surprisingly resilient through this week's macro volatility," Viraj Patel, global market strategist at Vanda, wrote to clients on Friday. Options flows from institutional investors are around three times higher than a typical September, the data shows. Patel said that big money's flows have turned up over the past five sessions, despite the 10-year and 30-year U.S.