Shares of American tech giants — including Amazon and Google — staged a shocking rally late Thursday after beginning the day deep in the as Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine shocked global markets.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed up 3.4% after starting the trading session down about 2.5%. Individual tech names had an even crazier ride.
Shares of Apple plunged 4% as markets opened before ending the session up 1.7%. Facebook parent Meta fell 2.0% then closed up 4.6%.
Amazon and Google both also started the day in the red but had climbed 4.5% and 4.0%, respectively.
But the bizarre rally comes as the Nasdaq composite remains down a whopping 14.9% year-to-date. Industry watchers said tech is particularly vulnerable to a sharp stock selloff even though Russia and Ukraine are not key markets for American tech giants.
That’s because they’re already trading at such high prices that any little disturbance can knock them off their already-shaky pedestals, analysts said. They’re also expected to be impacted by rising interest rates.
In an investor note titled “Ukraine Invasion Will Cause Scary Tech Sell-Off,” Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives called the invasion a “Black Swan event” causing “significant pain” for tech stocks.
“This is the most oversold we are have seen tech stocks since 2014/2015 with investors heading for the exits in accelerated fashion with potential war breaking out in Europe,” Ives said.
Other tech stocks were also battered on Thursday.
Shares of electric automaker Tesla fell a whopping 4.9% in the morning, briefly knocking billions of dollars off Elon Musk’s net worth before recovering to be down just 0.6%. Microsoft shares were initially down 1.5% before recovering to be 1.6% in the green.
Some investors are fleeing to less risky assets such as US Treasury bonds and gold, which both spiked on Thursday. Investors are fleeing to less risky assets such as US Treasury bonds and gold, which both spiked on Thursday.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ethereum also nosedived and then recovered on Thursday. Bitcoin was trading down 4.5% on Thursday morning then recovered to trade up 3.1%, while ethereum fell 6% before going 2.3% into the green, according to Coinbase data.
Smaller cryptocurrencies took an even greater beating, with XRP plunging 12.6%, cardano falling 9.7% and solana falling 9.0%.
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