Apple and Facebook Still Thriving
At the open, investors were invigorated by strong earnings results from both Apple and Facebook, with the iPhone-maker claiming that sales rocketed 54% during the quarter, with each product category seeing double-digit growth. The company also said it would boost its dividend by 7%, and authorized $90 billion in share buybacks. The moves helped Apple gain almost half a percent in early trading.
Meanwhile, social media giant Facebook’s revenue popped 48%, aided by more expensive ads, which helped lift the company’s shares by as much as 6.5%, to reach a record high.
“The primary market trend remains positive,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist. “But we expect a choppier environment as tensions are set to persist between better economic growth and earnings prospects versus the potential for higher taxes and rising interest rates as the economy normalizes,” he added.
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10 Best Tech Stocks to Invest in For Long Term
The previous year was a somber one for many in the world. Millions of lives were lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, small business owners were forced to shut down or liquidate operations, and social distancing restrictions confined large parts of the world population to their homes for months. In the midst of all the chaos, there was a bull trend in the stock market for technology stocks that had adapted to the new economic conditions and seemed to thrive in them. By the end of the year, five big tech stocks accounted for almost 20% of the S&P 500 Index.
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It’s been a great time to be investing over the past five years. Virtually anything investors have touched has turned to gold since 2016, and the
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) total return over that stretch has been 120.1%.
High-growth tech stocks have been some of the best performers in the market over that five-year stretch. In fact, the
Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLK) has more than doubled the S&P 500’s gains, generating a 247% total return over the last five years.
Five-Year Winners: Given that outperformance, it s not surprising popular tech stocks are among the biggest market winners of the past five years. Here’s how much $1,000 invested in each of the following stocks back in 2016 would be worth today.