(Bloomberg) - There might be more punishment in store for the big tech Faang companies licking their wounds after a $2 trillion-plus tumble, technicals show.
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The group -- Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc.), Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google (now Alphabet Inc.) -- had been pandemic-era standouts. But their shares have withered this year as higher interest rates reduced the value of their future earnings gains and investors searched for safer assets.
Though the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index gained 3.7% on Friday, it has fallen 24% in 2022, on course for its worst year since the global financial crisis of 2008.
The continued tech pummeling caused Apple to lose its crown as the world’s most valuable company to Saudi Aramco, as all the Faangs sank toward trend lines that have historically acted as floors for the stocks.
Amazon
Amazon has slumped nearly 40% from its peak and its Friday close of $2,261.10 was close to a significant test of support -- the former breakout resistance area between $2,000 and $2,200. Any move below this will bring the 20-year-old trend line from the 2001 low into focus.
Apple
Apple has fallen into a confluence of critical supports in area of $140 to $150, where a trend line from September 2020 lies in close proximity to the neckline of a potential head-and-shoulders pattern. The drop has broken through both of these important support levels and taken out the last swing low of $150. Apple, which closed Friday at $147.11, is now underperforming the S&P 500 Index for the year.
Alphabet
Alphabet has lost one fifth of its value this year after topping out at the upper end of a channel drawn off the lows of the great recession of 2009. The decline is still well within the channel’s range, with prices currently trading above the median line with price currently tracing a so-called “inverted hammer,” which could be bullish. But a break below the line will increase the potential of testing the edge of the lower channel. Alphabet’s Class C shares closed last week at $2,330.31.
Meta
Meta’s earnings-driven plunge in February has pushed prices below a long-term trend line, whose underside will be resistance for any bounce attempt. A shorter-term line of support from the 2018 lows has arrested the decline for now, but any failure at this support level could leave the stock vulnerable. Meta shares closed Friday at $198.62.
Netflix
Netflix, down 73% from a record high last year, is trying to hold on to support at the lower end of a long-term channel originating from the 2011 high. The failure of the stock to reach the channel highs before the recent plunge was a sign of weakness. Under the channel’s support area lies a key Fibonacci level at $156: If price falls through it, the long-term trend line from the 2008 low will become an important marker. Netflix closed Friday at $187.64.
By Akshay Chinchalkar
