The tech sector sell-off is not just about Facebook’s data scandal anymore.
Several of the market’s favorite technology stocks tanked as investors grew concerned over the companies’ ambitious growth following new developments Tuesday. The NYSE FANG index fell 5.6 percent on Tuesday and is down 6 percent over the last week, its worst showing since the index began in 2014.
The so-called FANG stocks all dropped, with Facebook down 5 percent, Amazon off by 4 percent, Netflix falling 6 percent and Google-parent Alphabet lower by 4.5 percent.
And the pain was shared in other tech stocks. Twitter declined 12 percent after a famed short seller issued a negative report, predicting more regulation over its social media platform after Facebook’s controversy.
Nvidia, the best performing chip stock in the S&P 500 over the past year, stumbled down 8 percent after the chipmaker announced it would suspend self-driving tests. Artificial intelligence and autonomous driving are two of the company’s key promising markets.
And Tesla shares fell 8 percent after the National Transportation Safety Board said it sent investigators to look into a fatal car crash last week in California, according to a post on social media.
The steep drop in these popular technology stocks weighed on the sector’s leaders.
The PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index, fell 3.2 percent on heavy volume. The fund traded more than 75 million shares Tuesday, well above its 30-day volume average of 46.6 million.
