It’s a far cry from last year, when technology and telecommunications stocks both rose more than 35% to lead the S&P 500’s 23% gain. This year, typically lagging groups like industrials, utilities and financials are driving the stock market’s rebound. Whether Big Tech can re-establish its historical dominance in 2025 is the existential question facing investors as they start positioning for the back half of the year.
For most of the past decade, a handful of high-flying technology companies have pushed the US stock market to record highs and become cornerstones of investment portfolios. But that’s collapsed this year.
Despite the S&P 500 Index clawing back into the green for 2025 after being whipsawed by President Donald Trump’s vacillating trade policies, tech giants like Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Tesla Inc are still down. The Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Index — which includes those companies as well as Meta Platforms Inc, Microsoft Corp and Nvidia Corp — is underperforming the S&P 500, and if that holds through Dec 31, it would make this just the second year in the last 10 where that’s happened.
