US tech stocks sink in major equity reversal

By
Jonathan Roy
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US tech stocks tumbled through the Thursday and Friday’s sessions on Wall Street amid a major selloff in US equities that saw the highest levels of selling S&P 500 since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

Big names such as the ‘FAANG’ were heavily hit bit selling was broad with the NASDAQ dropping 5% on Thursday.

Facebook lost 3.7%, Google 5% and Apple a whopping 8%. Tesla was one of the biggest fallers losing over 9% of its value.

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Analysts were unable to attribute an exact cause for the selloff but justification came in the form of high valuations, concern about the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic and repositioning ahead of the upcoming US elections.

“Without being able to pinpoint an exact reason for the carnage, the US tech stocks were dealt an absolute beating on Thursday night, rapidly unravelling billions in gains made over the last few months,” said Connor Campbell, analyst at Spreadex.

The selling spilled over into Friday’s session where futures dropped going into the US open.

Despite the sharp losses in the US tech stocks, the sector is still up significantly in 2020 having shaken off concerns over the coronavirus crisis.

Indeed, some US tech shares have begun to display defensive characteristics typically associated with utility companies and defence shares.

Shares such as Netflix, Apple, Google and Facebook have become the pillar of investors portfolios as they seek out reliable companies that will continue to produce cash flows in the stay at home economy.

However, this week’s sell off is a stark reminder of the cyclical nature of tech stocks and just how lofty some of the valuations have become.

Tesla has recently traded at a price to earning valuation in excess of 900x. The FTSE 100 long term average is around 16x-17x.