Stephen Gandel, Columnist

Tech Stocks Morph Into a Three-Headed Monster

Their influence cannot be contained to just one sector.

March 28, 2019 at 9:00 AM UTC

Stephen Gandel is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and equity markets. He was previously a deputy digital editor for Fortune and an economics blogger at Time. He has also covered finance and the housing market.

The FAANGs break out.
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

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What’s an investor to do when a tech stock is no longer a tech stock?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s U.S. stock market strategists said recently that investors should overweight technology shares. The catch is the group of tech stocks Bank of America recommended didn’t include Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc. or Google parent Alphabet Inc., three of the closely watched FANG stocks — the other in that group is Apple Inc. — that are usually associated with the tech sector. In fact, Bank of America said those stocks should be avoided. Even more confusing: Neither of those investment calls included Amazon.com Inc., which, along with the stocks of its sector — consumer discretionary — is a buy, according to Bank of America.