Commentary
At the annual Boys’ Club of New York luncheon on April 4, a 16-year-old guest asked hedge fund manager Chase Coleman what stock he should buy.
It was an innocuous and softball question.
Buy the FAANGs, Coleman said, referring to the acronym of several mega-cap technology stocks including Apple, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms.
Wait, is this 2018 again?
Tech stocks suffered a drubbing last year as the Federal Reserve embarked on a series of massive rate hikes. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 33 percent in 2022, its worst performance since 2008.
But the first quarter of this year has been a complete reversal for technology companies. Tech stocks that were pummeled in 2022 are suddenly big winners. Year-to-date through April 6 shares of Apple are up 31.7 percent, Netflix is up 15.1 percent, Alphabet is up 21.4 percent, and Meta Platforms is up an astounding 73.2 percent. Compared to the S&P 500’s return of 7.3 percent during the same period, these technology giants have far outperformed so far….