MW Buy the dip with Apple, Microsoft and these other tech stocks before they fly way higher, says analyst
By Jack Denton
Critical information for the U.S. trading day
It has been a bad week for technology stocks. The Nasdaq tumbled 2.7% on Wednesday and the slide looks set to continue on Thursday.
So buy the dip before tech stocks move at least 25% higher this year, says veteran tech analyst Daniel Ives of investment firm Wedbush in our call of the day.
"The risk off trade for tech has been a painful one for tech investors this week as worries around high valuations, bubble fears, rotation trade, rising yields, and a focus on reopening plays take center stage," Ives said.
But according to Ives, the digital transformation is just getting started and will last a few years for companies in cloud, cybersecurity, e-commerce, and 5G. These subsectors are the life of the tech party, with consumer and enterprise demand catalyzing a "multiyear growth boom" ahead, the analyst said.
Though collaboration software like Zoom (ZM), Teams, Slack $(WORK)$, and Citrix $(CTXS)$ will see "moderating growth" into 2022, many chief executives have told Wedbush that 30% to 40% of employees could remain working remotely in some form. This will prompt companies to "rip the Band-Aid off and go aggressive" with cloud transformation, Ives said.
Investors should use the current market weakness to ensure that Apple $(AAPL)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$, DocuSign $(DOCU)$, Zscaler $(ZS)$, Palo Alto $(PANW)$, SailPoint $(SAIL)$, and Nuance $(NUAN)$ are included in their portfolios, Ives advised.
Across the wider sector, Wedbush predicts that tech stocks will move at least 25% upward in the next year. That will be driven by big names Facebook (FB), Amazon $(AMZN)$, Apple, Netflix $(NFLX)$, and Google, owned by Alphabet $(GOOGL)$, as well as cloud and cybersecurity stocks, despite the recent selloff, Ives said.
More broadly, Ives said that Uber $(UBER)$ and Lyft $(LYFT)$ -- "disruptive tech recovery names" -- remain Wedbush's favorite "reopening plays," with profitability on the horizon and a massive surge in food delivery.
And while tech regulation is a long-term risk, "it still remains a Goldilocks environment for tech stocks with the Biden administration," according to Wedbush. Ives sees President Joe Biden as likely to ramp down tensions in the "Cold Tech War" brewing between the U.S. and China, as well as encourage cybersecurity initiatives.
Market bears will come out of hibernation to warn investors that the tech stock boom and bull rally is over, Ives said. Wedbush believes this is "a golden opportunity to own the secular tech winners for the next 12 to 18 months at compelling valuations given some of these selloffs."
The buzz
The House of Representatives wrapped up the week after police discovered a QAnon-linked militia plot , who was killed during an arrest in May 2020.
On the economic front , initial jobless claims released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern will be the headline figure. It is expected that 750,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, a slight increase from 730,000 the week prior. Continuing jobless claims and factory orders for January are also due this morning, before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at The Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit at noon.
SpaceX's Starship -- a prototype for a future Mars mission -- looked like it aced a landing to make founder Elon Musk proud .
The CEO of Texas' power grid has been fired . The grid suffered a fatal failure in a freezing February that left millions without heat or electricity for days in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.
The European Medicines Agency, the drug regulator for the European Union, has started a review of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia.
The Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K. competition regulator, is investigating Apple over the terms and conditions governing developers' access to the App Store.
The online Indian retailer Flipkart, mostly owned by Walmart $(WMT)$, is considering a U.S. listing through merging with a special-purpose acquisition company that said the company could seek a valuation of at least $35 billion.
The markets
Dow futures are pointing down around 120 points, in line with other stock market futures , set to continue the slide from yesterday. The Dow slipped more than 120 points on Wednesday along with other indexes. European stocks are down after three straight days of gains while major Asian indexes all fell more than 2%.
The chart
If you think bonds have been bumpier than usual...you'd be right. Our chart of the day, from Marshall Gittler at BDSwiss, shows just how volatile the Treasury market is right now. Gittler charts the MOVE index, which is like the bond market version of the VIX index for stocks. Volatility in stocks is near normal while foreign exchange is a little calmer than usual.
Random reads
Tahltan woman from Northern Canada bakes moose head that looks fierce, tastes phenomenal, and feeds a family.
A passenger flight turned around in Sudan when a stowaway cat attacked the pilot .
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-Jack Denton; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires
March 04, 2021 07:23 ET (12:23 GMT)
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