The tech sector is under pressure. Despite gold’s
revival as a safe haven investment, tech shares have been seeing a sell-off lately, but could this open up possible bargains for investors?
Be it because of the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China (two markets that tech companies rely on heavily for imports / exports) or the emerging US antitrust investigation, shares among FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet (Google)) and MAGA (Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon) companies have lost ground., The market appears poised for correction in the near future. In addition to this, there are valuable stocks operating within this space for investors who know where to look. More on this later, but first, some context:
Peaks & troughs
Where to look? When figuring where and how to invest into any market, following an ETF could be easier for many investors, over relying on due diligence. A recent trade on the NASDAQ 100 ETF
QQQ may shed some light on a possible window of where and when investors would want to capitalize on tech.
The QQQ provides investors a means to diversify their portfolio within the large-cap equity space. It is a growth fund, but also a tech fund, where nearly half (42.6%) of its holdings are in tech companies.
(Stockhouse QQQ ETF chart August 2018 – 2019. Click to enlarge.)
The QQQ has seen an uptrend from December 2018 lows. Since January of that year, the trend broke and saw a 20% peak-to-trough decline. There is a possibility this could happen again. Micro corrections are often followed by quick bounces, which then often turn to sit near a previous low.
Let’s pull back the focus and look at the ETF’s performance since 2016, there is further support showing the market’s overall increase as a correction from its dips.
(Stockhouse QQQ ETF chart August 2016 – 2019. Click to enlarge.)
AI stocks on the rise
Circling back to the value for stocks undere pressure, quite a few operators in the tech space are seeing impressive overall growth, especially among those who use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their products, where its usage is growing in retail and cybersecurity.
A
recent report from
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) forecast the AI market would quadruple in size from $36 billion in 2020 to $127 billion by 2025.
Highlighting companies ranging from medical research firm
Icon (NASDAQ: ICLR) to cybersecurity provider
CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), those who use AI to advance their competitive edge stand to see more robust gains.
How can an investor find value in a tech-sell off? The key is two-fold: One - keep an eye on trends and make a move before the market makes a correction, which could be very soon, and the other is to find a company that uses its tech to enhance a business outside of the industry.