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Amazon and Netflix Tumble as Tech Rout Extends to Fifth Week

The Information Technology group was among the worst performers in the S&P 500 on Monday.

Amazon and Netflix Tumble as Tech Rout Extends to Fifth Week
The logos for Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., sit on smartphone and tablet devices. (Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Another week, another sell-off for the world’s biggest tech and internet stocks.

Investors hoping for a reprieve from the worst month for technology stocks in a decade were greeted with more selling on Monday as Amazon.com Inc. tumbled as much as 8.3 percent and Netflix Inc. slid as much as 7.1 percent. Facebook Inc. was down 3 percent in mid-day trading ahead of its earnings report on Tuesday. Google parent Alphabet Inc. slid 5.4 percent.

Amazon and Netflix Tumble as Tech Rout Extends to Fifth Week

“There’s been a shift in sentiment that has come on concerns about growth” since earnings from Amazon and Alphabet last week, said Ron Josey, managing director and senior analyst covering internet and digital media for JMP Securities. “Amazon warned on growth, Google did, and of course last quarter, Facebook dived on decelerating growth. I think the sell-off is anticipating there could be more slowing when it reports.”

The Nasdaq 100 Index gave up early gains to fall 2.6 percent at 3:23 p.m. in New York. If the index remains lower, it would be the first time in more than three years it erased an intraday gain of at least 1.8 percent.

The Information Technology group was among the worst performers in the S&P 500 on Monday. The sector has fallen more than 11 percent this month amid a spike in volatility. That’s on pace for the biggest monthly decline since October 2008.

The slide came as the U.S. is said to be preparing to announce tariffs by early December on all remaining Chinese imports if talks next month between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war, according to three people familiar with the matter. The U.K. government also proposed a digital services tax on Monday that targets 400 million pounds a year ($512 million) from companies like Alphabet and Facebook.

--With assistance from Lu Wang.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net;Ryan Vlastelica in New York at rvlastelica1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.