Signs of progress on US tariff agreements in early May offered some reprieve around trade tensions, prompting investors to be more "risk-on", driving stock markets higher.
Following on from US president Donald Trump's pausing of many higher rate tariffs in April, the UK and US announced a trade deal on 8 May. This marked the Trump administration's first pact since it unveiled sweeping tariffs and included an agreement to lower levies on a certain number of UK car exports, among other points.
Days later, the US and China announced that they had agreed to temporarily slash tariffs on each other's imports by 115% for 90 days, marking a major de-escalation in tensions between the two countries.
However, the break from tensions was short-lived, as on 23 May Trump then threatened to raise tariffs to 50% on imports from the European Union (EU) and to put a 25% levy on Apple (AAPL) products unless iPhones are made in the US.
Following conversations with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Trump then said a few days later he had decided to hit pause on imposing higher tariffs on the EU until 9 July.
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Later last week, a US trade court then moved to block Trump from imposing his sweeping tariffs, having ruled that the president exceeded his authority when he used an emergency law to issue global reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners. A day later, however, an appeals court temporarily halted this order, allowing Trump to keep collecting tariffs for now.
Capping off the month's trade developments, Trump said that he would double tariffs to 50% on imports of steel and aluminium. On the same day, Trump also claimed China had "totally violated" its trade truce with the US, an accusation which China fired back at Washington on Monday. After a call with China's president Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, both countries pledged to restart tariff and trade talks in the coming days.
At the end of the month, investors were also focused on Nvidia's (NVDA) first quarter earnings, which came out on 28 May. Expectations have become increasingly high around the chipmaker's earnings, but the results appeared to pass muster this time round, with shares rising on the back of their release.
In fact, the Magnificent 7 – comprised of Nvidia, as well as Tesla (TSLA), Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) – were responsible for 62% of the S&P 500's (^GSPC) gains in May, according to financial research firm DataTrek. This contributed to the US blue-chip index clocking its best month of trading in May since 1990, though it is still less than 1% in the green year-to-date.
Other markets also continued to rebound on tariff progress last month, with the UK's FTSE 100 (^FTSE) now up nearly 8% year-to-date, while the pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) has advanced 9.3% so far this year.
With that mind, here were the most popular stocks and funds with investors last month.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "May was an easier ride for investors, even though market movements continue to be dominated by tariff twists and turns."
“The early announcement of a trade deal between the US and the UK gave rise to hopes that others could follow in short order, although subsequent events put paid to that optimism," he said. "A court ruling that the tariffs were not legal was replaced by a temporary removal of that blockage, while in the final weekend in May the aggressive rhetoric towards other trading partners resumed."
Oil major BP (BP.L) topped the most bought lists for Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown and Bestinvest, with investors appearing to take advantage of the fact that shares are trading at their lowest point in three years.
Shares fell after BP (BP.L) reported that profits almost halved in the first quarter. The company reported an underlying replacement cost profit – a key metric used as a proxy for net profit – of $1.38bn (£1.02bn), falling short of the $1.53bn forecast by analysts polled by LSEG (LSEG.L). The figure also marks a 49% decline from the $2.7bn posted in the same period last year.
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The company has come under pressure from the decline in oil prices, which have fallen amid concerns that a tariff-induced economic slowdown would weigh on demand for fuel.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "BP's shares came under more pressure after its first set of quarterly results since its strategy reset unimpressed the market.
"Despite reductions in costs and investment expenditure, debt moved in the wrong direction. But plenty of investors appear hopeful that the transformation plan will start to bear fruit and have been buying shares in the hope of an uplift."
Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) remained another top 10 stock buy for investors on Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown, Robinhood (HOOD) and Bestinvest's platforms.
Following a drop in Nvidia's (NVDA) share price in April, as Trump's trade war ramped up, the stock recovered in May amid the reprieve on tariffs.
The stock then climbed higher towards the end of the month, after the company unveiled a number of new technologies at the Computex tech expo in Taiwan, including developments around its robotics capabilities, among other updates.
Stocks: Create your watchlist and portfolio
This came a week before the Nvidia's (NVDA) update on its first quarter performance, which have become the most highly anticipated results of the earnings season, given the chipmaker's role as an enabler of AI.
For the first quarter, Nvidia (NVDA) posted revenue of $44.1bn, which topped estimates of $43.3bn, though earnings per share of $0.81 were below expectations of $0.93.
Shares popped on the back of the results, despite Nvidia (NVDA) warning of a $4.5bn charge from controls on its exports of its H20 chips to China. Excluding this charge, Nvidia (NVDA) said that earnings per share would have been $0.96 for the first quarter.
"There remains significant appetite for chip star Nvidia (NVDA), given the demand for its products to power the AI revolution keeps powering upwards," said Streeter. "The company beat revenue expectations again last month, despite fresh restrictions on its exports to China."
Investors continued to put money behind defence stocks last month, a trade which has become popular as European governments have pledged to spend more on this area.
FTSE 100-listed firm Rolls-Royce (RR.L) remained one of the most popular stocks for investors in May, appearing on the lists of Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown and Bestinvest.
BAE System (BA.L) also appeared on Hargreaves Lansdown and Bestinvest's lists, as another UK-listed company in the sector.
"There’s an expectation that the EU-UK trade deal will open up deep new pools of funding for British defence companies, as efforts are made to counter the heightened threat from Russia," said Streeter.
Investors also continued to invest in Strategy Incorporated (MSTR), the software firm which is the world's largest corporate holder of bitcoin (BTC-USD).
"It was an up-and-down month for MSTR with bitcoin highs supporting the share price, only for valuation concerns to take the shine off the crypto rise," said Robinhood (HOOD) UK lead analyst Dan Lane.
"Robinhood (HOOD) UK investors are keeping the faith for now, with Coinbase (COIN) on the radar too after being included in the S&P 500 index during the month."
UK high street stalwart Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) was another stock that investors appeared to take the opportunity to snap up amid a knock to its share price.
The stock was on the most bought lists of Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown, Bestinvest and AJ Bell (AJB.L) in May.
"Marks and Spencer’s (MKS.L) cyber-attack disrupted stores and online ordering, causing a 16% drop in shares before starting to recover mid-month," said Hargreaves' Streeter.
"Sentiment has been helped by an update showing the retailer is fighting to restore its systems from a position of resilience after a 22% uplift in underlying pre-tax annual profit."
Passive funds continued to dominate platforms most bought lists, with US and global funds accounting for many of investors' popular choices.
Funds that appeared on multiple lists, included Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index (0P00018XAR.L) and HSBC FTSE All World Index (0P00013P6I.L), which are exposed to the Mag 7 tech giants, among other major global companies.
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While markets did see a recovery last month, Hargreaves Lansdown head of fund research Victoria Hasler said that "volatility abounded in May, with more tariff drama, cyber attacks and economic uncertainty."
"This led some investors to turn to active managers to navigate the difficult environment, and the Artemis Global Income fund topped our list of most bought funds," she said. "Income strategies generally tend to be a little more defensive than the market as a whole, and the Artemis fund has a value bias which could have attracted investors. The other active fund in the top ten was also a global offering – the Rathbone Global Opportunities fund."
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