FAANG Stocks Rebound After Slumping to Multimonth Lows
The FAANG stocks were all on track to snap multi-day declines, even as their recent trends remained decidedly to the downside.
(Bloomberg) -- Major technology and internet stocks rallied in early trading Wednesday in what amounted to a partial rebound from recent sharp losses that took the one-time market leaders to multi-month lows and helped drive the Nasdaq into a bear market.
The FAANG stocks -- Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google-parent Alphabet -- were all on track to snap multi-day declines, even as their recent trends remained decidedly to the downside.
“We’re seeing a bounce from what looks like deeply oversold conditions,” Adam Sarhan, chief executive officer of 50 Park Investments, an advisory and consulting firm, said by phone. “It isn’t surprising to see a rebound like this given the scale of the losses. We’re in a bearish phase right now.”
Amazon gained as much as 5 percent in early trading. But that came after a four-day slide that took it to its lowest close since February. The stock fell as much as 5.1 percent in Monday’s session, a shortened one ahead of the Christmas holiday, though it recovered more than half of that decline to close down 2.4 percent.
Apple, Alphabet, and Netflix are also coming off four-day declines.
Shares of Apple rose as much as 2.1 percent on Wednesday, having closed Monday at their lowest since July 2017. Alphabet, which is coming off its lowest close since October 2017, briefly rose 3.0 percent.
Netflix rose 2.6 percent. The video-streaming company has shed more than 40 percent of its value since a July record -- based on its Monday closing level -- including a 5.1 percent slump on Monday that took it to its lowest since January. But it remains the top performer among the FAANG stocks in 2018, up almost 25 percent year-to-date. (Amazon is the only other FAANG stock that’s positive for the year, up almost 20%.)
Facebook rose as much as 4.4 percent on Wednesday. The social-media company is coming off a 0.7 percent decline on Monday, its second straight drop, where it ended at its lowest since January 2017.
Citron Research published a bullish report on Facebook on Wednesday, writing that it was "backing up the sleigh" on the company. It issued a $160 price target on the stock, a level that implies upside of almost 30 percent from Monday’s close.
The FAANG companies have been besieged for a number of reasons over the past several months. In addition to company-specific issues -- including a variety of controversies at Facebook and signs of slowing iPhone demand at Apple -- high-growth, momentum stocks have fallen out of favor amid concerns over the pace of economic growth and uncertainty surrounding the direction of Federal Reserve monetary policy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Vlastelica in New York at rvlastelica1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper
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