Tech Sector Set To Lead Stocks Lower Again

Tech stocks are taking another hit Monday, continuing Friday's massive sector-wide sell-off.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK was down more than 1.3 percent at the open.

The "FAAMG" stocks — Facebook Inc FB, Apple Inc. AAPL, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL — were all down by as much as 3 percent.

The sell-off began following Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Bouroujerdi’s comments that mega-cap technology companies have created a "valuation air pocket."

Tech Companies Linking Up

On Monday morning, Foxconn announced that Apple and Dell Inc have joined it in bidding for Toshiba’s highly prized chip unit, Reuters reported.

Alphabet, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO are also in talks with Foxconn about joining the consortium.

Western Digital Corp WDC and Broadcom Ltd AVGO are also said to be making their own competing bids for the second-largest NAND producer in the world.

Despite the news, only Cisco was trading higher at Monday’s open.

Pandora Media Inc P announced Friday will receive a $480 million investment from Sirius XM Holdings Inc. SIRI and also confirmed the sale of Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200 million, boosting the stock before it fell with the others by nearly 4 percent.

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO was also seeing strength early Friday on the confirmation of its takeover by Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and raised guidance by Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd BABA, in which Yahoo holds a major stake.

E3 Looms

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is set to open on Tuesday, which should provide a cushion for tech stocks exposed to the gaming industry.

On Sunday. Microsoft revealed a new console, but the news hasn’t seemed to benefit the stock as of yet.

Today's Outlook

Of the companies discussed, only Cisco and Verizon were up as of 10:30 a.m. ET.

Semiconductor, entertainment-related and social media stocks were also all generally down, indicating that investors' huge downward shift in perspective will continue.

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