U.S. technology stocks this week took back their title as the stock market’s most profitable bet of the year, and the so-called FANG stocks have regained their shine after investors dumped the high-flying group in December over fears that the decade-old bull market was dying.
San Francisco’s unicorn startups are pouncing on tech’s newfound momentum. Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc is planning to kick off a long-awaited initial public offering in April, Reuters reported on Thursday.That puts Uber close on the heels of smaller rival Lyft Inc , which released its filing for an initial public offering at the start of March following two solid months for technology stocks.
“There was a lot of forced de-risking by hedge funds in December,” said Joel Kulina, a trader at Wedbush Securities who specializes in tech stocks. “Now there’s a lot of FOMO,” or “fear of missing out,” he said, a familiar motivation among U.S. investors in recent years. The S&P 500 information technology index has surged 3.6 per cent so far this week and is up 16.4 per cent year to date, edging out a 15.4-per-cent gain in the industrial index , which led since February but was held back this week by a slump in Boeing.
In another sign of turning sentiment, the FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet - each logged year-to-date gains on Monday that were better than the S&P 500, a first in 2019.This is the Globe Investor newsletter, published three times each week.