Tech Stocks Are Entering an Age of Uncertainty
Facebook, Netflix, Zoom and others are suffering in the markets as investors reassess their lockdown darlings. But they will rise again.
Tough transition.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In the two decades since the dot-com crash, investors have been bracing themselves for another bubble to burst. Yet year after year, tech firms like Facebook and Alphabet Inc. continued to enjoy uninterrupted expansion and unwavering faith among their investors that it would continue. Even the financial crisis of 2008 barely registered as a blip. But now there is serious talk among entrepreneurs and investors that the correction everyone feared might finally be happening.
Given how intrinsically technology is woven into our lives — and how it will pioneer new avenues through augmented reality, streaming services, artificial intelligence and more — the broader tech boom of the past two decades seems set to continue in the long run. But investors for now must navigate something novel: uncertainty. Already the Nasdaq 100 has declined about 23% since November 2021. That is as steep a drop as it experienced in March 2020 with the onset of global Covid-19 lockdowns. If it slides a couple percentage points more, that will mark its biggest decline ever in a single year. So-called FAANG stocks, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, had on Friday lost roughly $2 trillion in value since the start of the year.