Stocks were up again with the NASDAQ the pace-setter. This is ironic, since the best tech analyst ever, Fred Hickey, has nary a kind word to say about the sector, notes Jack Adamo, editor of Insiders Plus.
But the FAANGs — Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and Google (GOOGL) — with their huge overweighting in all major indices, keep driving prices higher, albeit on ever-narrowing advance/decline breadth for the rest of the indices' components.
Numbers crunched by Bianco Research show that through April 24, the S&P 500 added $1.19 trillion in market value. Of that, the FAANGs grew by $392 billion (33% of the whole), with Apple alone accounting for $140 billion -- more than 10% of the index's return.
Active money managers, trying not to fall behind, have piled in on top of the index funds and are magnifying the effect, which is now self perpetuating.
As I've said before, this is not a good sign, but is not a sign of imminent disaster. This condition can go on for a long time before it falls apart.
Merrill-Lynch tracks institutional money managers. It says the ones they watch now have a 24% overweighting in tech -- the highest proportion in its history.
Hickey must be bouncing off the walls. In between, however, he's been strategically shorting selected tech names with good effect.
