Some of the market’s best-performing technology stocks so far this year are tanking Wednesday.
Shares of Facebook, Netflix, Nvidia and Micron are all down more than 4 percent. Micron was down more than 7 percent. The Technology SPDR fund dropped 2.2 percent, its biggest one-day decline since June.
As popular tech stocks fell, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund rose 2.1 percent. And the Dow Jones industrial average was still up 65 points even with the tech drop.
“It’s surprising that you’re seeing a pullback this big after such a strong fundamental performance,” said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners, noting that tech earnings have been strong. “I do wonder if there is some rotation going on. The banks’ story is getting better after Jerome Powell’s testimony.”
Micron and Nvidia rank No. 3 and No. 10, respectively, in the entire S&P 500 for year-to-date returns as of Wednesday morning, up 103 percent and 83 percent, respectively.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley lowered its ratings on several chip stocks such as Western Digital, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor to equal weight from overweight, sparking a sell-off in the semiconductor sector.
“We think now is the time to reduce exposure to NAND [flash memory] and Asian semiconductor names as the industry has benefitted from sizeable demand tailwinds and unprecedented pricing power, which we see reversing soon,” analyst Shawn Kim wrote in a note to clients Sunday entitled “Time For a Pause.” “This reflects our negative view of prospects for the global memory industry, which is currently at a peak.”
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this story.
Popular tech stocks like Nvidia, Facebook are getting smoked as investors rotate into bank names