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 tumbled as much as 8.3% and Netflix slid as much as 7.1%. Facebook was down 3% in mid-day trading ahead of its earnings report on Tuesday. Google parent Alphabet slid 5.4%.
“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, MD 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 selloff is anticipating there could be more slowing when it reports.”
The Nasdaq 100 Index gave up early gains to fall 2.6% at 3.23pm 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%.
The IT group was among the worst performers in the S&P 500 on Monday. The sector has fallen more than 11% this month amid a spike in volatility. That’s on pace for the biggest monthly decline since October 2008.
The slide came as the US 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 UK government also proposed a digital services tax on Monday that targets £400-million/year from companies like Alphabet and Facebook. — Reported by Jeran Wittenstein and Ryan Vlastelica, with assistance from Lu Wang, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP