Tech stocks got mauled this year - here's which ones got hit the hardest
- 2018 has been a rough year for tech investors.
- The sector got hit especially hard during the sell-off that occurred over the final few months of the year.
- Big US tech names, including the FAANG stocks, fell out of favor with Wall Street.
- Chinese tech and semiconductors were among the hardest hit during the selling.
Over the past few years, betting on the tech sector and its most prominent companies was a winning strategy. But this year has been a different story.
The stock market saw a brutal sell-off in February, and tech stocks were no exception. The sector suffered along with the broader market, seeing a loss of 8.6% - almost the same as the benchmark S&P 500. It later recovered and surged higher to a record high after President Donald Trump's tax-cut plan, which provided a boost through share buybacks.
Then things took another turn for the worse. The Nasdaq put in its record high in August before a sell-off in early October hit tech names particularly hard. The Nasdaq tanked as much as 24% during the final four months of the year, tumbling into a bear market.
The losses were widespread, and even the FAANG basket - Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet - wasn't spared. Apple (-12%) and Google (-5%) are down for the year, and Facebook (-27%) has fallen off a cliff. Meanwhile, Amazon (+18%) and Netflix (+21%) are still higher, but they're well off their highs.
And while FAANG stocks have been hit hard, there are other names that have fared far worse. Two types of companies - Chinese tech and semiconductors - were among the hardest hit, as uncertainty around the US-China trade war and slowing global growth weighed on investor sentiment.
Among the biggest losers this year in tech, four are Chinese companies, and three are semiconductors.
Here are the 10 tech stocks that tumbled the most in 2018, in ascending order of their year-to-date performance through Thursday.