Stocktake: Tech stocks suffer but this is no dotcom Mark II

The recent sell-off has been especially tough on technology stocks. The tech sector’s weighting in the S&P 500 fell from 28.85 to 27.35 per cent. That may sound minor, but it actually ranks as one of the biggest 12-day moves since 1990, according to Bespoke Investment.

Of course, it’s also true that the tech’s sector’s weighting in 2020 is greater than at any time since the dotcom bubble.

However, claims that tech stocks’ recent run resembles the dotcom era are wide of the mark. Over the past 200 days, notes DataTrek Research, the tech sector outperformed the S&P 500 by 31.6 per cent. That’s similar to rallies in 2003 and 2009 but nowhere near 1999-2000 levels, when tech stocks outperformed by 59.1 per cent – almost twice that seen in 2020.