Is tech’s turmoil here to stay?
Paul Meeks, who ran the world’s largest technology fund during the late 1990s, said the group’s recent pullback could worsen amid concerns around rising inflation and interest rates.
“The carnage that we’ve seen over the last couple of days unfortunately could only be the start of it,” the portfolio manager at Independent Solutions Wealth Management said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”
U.S. stock futures appeared to rebound early on Thursday, with large-cap tech names turning the Nasdaq Composite positive for the week.
“We’ve already had a beating in the tech sector close to about 10%. I think we could easily do another 10%” despite strong earnings and guidance from major tech companies, Meeks said.
Meeks, who manages over $800 million in assets, added that tech’s near-term future was “very difficult to predict” because investors are focused on how inflation and interest rates will impact the sector — not its own relatively healthy fundamentals.
“Don’t give up on tech. It’s always the most innovative companies on the planet Earth. It’s always where you want to be,” he said. “They’re going to have some great buying opportunities. But it’s going to be a bit lower.”
In terms of where to invest, Meeks recently turned positive on a space he once deemed too speculative: cryptocurrencies.
While he advised against investing in the cryptocoins themselves, derivative plays such as Square, PayPal and Coinbase could offer investors some upside, he said.
“I like those plays. And I do, long term, like the semiconductor trade,” he said. “Not short term, because it’s highly volatile, but long term, I do like Micron very much and Applied Materials, which is a maker of semiconductor equipment.”
Disclosure: Meeks owns shares of the companies he recommends.
