It’s been a slippery slope for investors to climb with the coronavirus still remaining as the wild card that could send the major indexes dropping at a moment’s notice. Nonetheless, tech was the big gainer in Monday’s trading session as the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% to hit a new record.
Tech’s rally was spearheaded by online retail giant Amazon, which rose 1.9% to hit its own record high with its price reaching above $2,100 per share for the first time. Monday also saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 trade higher after the major indexes suffered their first loss in five sessions—a byproduct of coronavirus concerns.
“Stock market investors are torn between fear that the coronavirus might continue to spread, weighing on global economic growth, and optimism given that the latest batch of global economic indicators is showing rebounding global growth,” said Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, in a note.
It’s difficult to say how much longer the coronarvirus will continue to infect the markets, especially now that it’s surpassed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in terms of death toll in China. Per a Reuters report, China “raised the death toll from its coronavirus outbreak to 811 on Sunday, passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic, as authorities made plans for millions of people returning to work after an extended Lunar New Year break.”
“The duration of this virus will determine how long businesses will be sidelined and what the effect will be on China and the global economy” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird.
In the meantime, investors can look to the following ETFs for tech exposure:
- Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XLK): The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund tries to reflect the performance of the Technology Select Sector Index, which is comprised of technology and telecom sector of the S&P 500. The ETF includes companies from technology hardware, storage, and peripherals; software; diversified telecommunication services; communications equipment; semiconductors and semiconductor equipment; internet software and services; IT services; electronic equipment, instruments and components; and wireless telecommunication services.
- Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF (NYSEArca: RYT): The Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Technology ETF tries to reflect the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Information Technology Index, which is comprised of S&P 500 technology companies that are equally weighted.
- iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSEArca: IYW): The iShares U.S. Technology ETF reflects the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Information Technology Index, which includes all tech sector picks in the Dow Jones U.S. Index. Due to the Dow Jones’ classification of information tech names, healthcare technology stocks may be included while payment technology stocks are excluded.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.