Key Highlights

● Chris Galipeau said buying on pullbacks makes sense on November 9.

● The comment was that Volatility is your friend.

● More than eight in ten S&P 500 companies beat estimates.

● Nvidia slid to its lowest close since April 7.

Some market advice fits on a sticky note. On Monday, November 9, 2026, Chris Galipeau of Franklin Templeton Institute offered a compact version: "Buying on pullbacks makes sense. Volatility is your friend."

It is a view that long-term investors have long debated. Volatility, the size and speed of price swings, can be frightening. But it can also mean that prices sometimes fall further than fundamentals justify, giving investors a chance to buy at lower levels. Galipeau's comment is one view, not a guarantee of future gains.

The pullback in question

The backdrop to his remark was a dramatic swing. In the week ending Friday, November 6, the S&P 500 suffered its worst weekly performance since April 2025, according to news reports. On November 5 the Nasdaq tumbled "into correction territory on AI tech wreck," and the PHLX Semiconductor index plunged that day, according to market coverage.

Then came Monday. The S&P 500 jumped 173.08 points to close at 7,549.94, its best day since April 8, and the semiconductor index posted its best day since July 30, reports said. Investors who bought during the slump were rewarded, at least for one day.

Volatility, measured

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, offers a snapshot of expected turbulence. It plunged 5.72 points to close at 19.92 on Monday, according to market reports, slipping back below 20. That signalled that Options traders expect calmer markets ahead, though the gauge can rise again quickly.

Swings in individual stocks were even sharper. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) more than recouped its prior-week loss after an Oppenheimer upgrade to Outperform with a $600 price target, reports said. Coherent (NYSE:COHR), which had tumbled on November 5, was among the best performers in the S&P 500. Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) rebounded after a sharp drop four days earlier, reports said.

The case behind the comment

Galipeau's view echoes others who see the selloff as a reset rather than the start of a deeper decline. A JPMorgan strategist said: "we see this more as an intra-cycle reset and another deleveraging event in the AI supercycle." An Oppenheimer strategist said it was "much too early to predict the failure of AI to gain traction."

Fundamentals offer some support. With most S&P 500 companies reporting third-quarter results, more than eight in ten beat Earnings estimates, according to market data, and blended earnings growth was running near a third. Market data forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17.7 sat below its five-year average.

The risks of buying the dip

Volatility cuts both ways. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) slid to its lowest close since April 7 on Monday, reports said, as its board opened an independent review involving CEO Jensen Huang. Its slide showed that not every pullback reverses quickly.

A Capital.com analyst said that "the rebound looks more like a tentative recovery in risk appetite than a convincing Reversal of the recent downtrend." And with the Federal Reserve widely expected to raise rates in December, according to news reports, more turbulence could lie ahead.

Dip-Buying Faces Fresh Risks

The next source of volatility arrives Tuesday with October's consumer price index, the last before the Fed's December 8-9 meeting. Producer prices follow Friday. Nvidia's earnings on November 17 and the December 11 government funding deadline are other potential flashpoints that could test whether volatility proves friend or foe.