Our timing was either perfect… or horrible.
When Louis Navellier and I sat down yesterday for the Tech Crisis 2022 event, it was only hours after the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time since 2018 — and set the expectation for six more increases over the rest of the year.
It was showdown day: The biggest fear facing investors — inflation — met the warrior central bank for battle.
So, of course, the market rallied. The S&P 500 gained 2.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq that has borne the brunt of this year’s selling jumped 3.8%.
On the one hand, I’m not surprised. The market has been pricing in this first interest-rate increase in the brutal start to 2022.
On the other, it’s imperative that you don’t get too comfortable.
The markets have been pummeled by this seemingly endless cycle of bad news, and I’m sure you have a lot of questions and legitimate concerns right now; everybody does.
And because of this, Louis and I knew it was the right time to host the first-ever Tech Crisis 2022 event. (If you missed that event, you can catch a replay right now by going here.)
But despite the announcement from the Fed, the timing of this event was crucial…
A Rocky Start, but Opportunities Can Still Emerge
In just the first quarter of 2022…
- The S&P 500 had its worst start in 90 years…
- The tech-heavy Nasdaq had its worst start since January of 2008 — and if you were investing then, I’m sure remember that the markets were in the depths of the financial crisis…
- And even the market’s most popular, highest-profile “disruptive” companies — tech stocks — have gotten whacked.
Take the legendary FAANG stocks. As of Monday’s close, Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB); Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN); Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL); Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), and Google’s parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), were down 26.6% on average to start the year. Meta and Netflix have taken the brunt of that with 45% losses in less than three months.
You can also find plenty of smaller, lesser-known companies with tons of promise that are way down. Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), one of the top data-analytics stocks in the world with tremendous upside potential, plummeted over 40% for the year at the beginning of this week.
Or Roblox (NYSE:RBLX), one of the premier “metaverse” plays in the market that is growing like a weed and is a really promising company. But since late Nov. 2021, its stock had nosedived more than 70%.
To be clear, I’m not picking on any of these individual companies. Dozens of other high-profile growth stock darlings have also been clobbered. I think the term “growth stock” may even make people a bit queasy these days.
A Changing Market Climate… and an Evolving Technochasm
We start by acknowledging the truth that nobody can predict exactly when the stressors on the market will ease up.
That’s why we focus on what do know. To see where growth stocks are heading during these times of uncertainty and beyond, we need to examine the phenomenon you’ve heard me talk about before, called the “Technochasm.”
But the Technochasm is no longer what it used to be.
I believe that it is entering a new phase… and will likely impact the stock market far more than interest rates or inflation in the coming years.
To recap…
I’ve been saying for a few years now — since before Covid-19 — that a giant chasm is dividing our country in half.
- On one side are the successful folks who fully understand what’s happening and are taking full advantage.
- On the other side is, well, pretty much everyone else. And no matter how hard they work or what they do, they continue to fall further behind.
To illustrate this point, the destruction of seemingly strong, dominant businesses by innovative technology-focused upstarts is a story we keep seeing over and over and over in America. The pandemic supercharged this phenomenon, and now inflation and the war in Ukraine are doing the same.
This proverbial fissure between the “haves” and the “have nots” is widening… and it’s going to widen even more in the coming years.
The convergence and acceleration of technologies like the internet, smartphones, and wireless networks over the past 15 years or so has enabled these now multibillion- and trillion-dollar tech giants to take over large parts of our lives. That was “Phase 1” of the Technochasm.
In the emerging “Phase 2,” technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G, the Internet of Things, driverless cars, the blockchain, and many others are rapidly changing the world around us.
The truth is that the amount of innovation and wealth creation that’s about to take place cannot be stopped — not by rising government debt, politics, border wars, inflation, or rising interest rates.
The Technochasm — and its positive effects on some and negative effects on others — is unstoppable.
And to be on the right side of the Technochasm, you want to focus on disruptive, fast-growing, and profitable “outsider” tech companies.
This all comes down to what Louis and I talked about at yesterday’s Tech Crisis 2022 event — because the sooner you act, the more opportunities in this space you’ll be privy to.
Put bluntly, Louis and I can show you how to seat yourself on the right side of the Technochasm… because things are changing faster than ever before.
And if you don’t keep up, you’ll be left behind.
You can check out the replay of yesterday’s event right here — and just for viewing the video, you’ll receive two free stock picks that are poised to soar as the Technochasm widens.
Eric Fry
Editor, Smart Money
P.S. Here’s How You Could Beat the S&P 500 by 10X…
In addition to everything mentioned here, Louis and I revealed a simple way you could beat the S&P 500 by 10X or more during these uncertain times. Learn more by watching a replay of last night’s Tech Crisis 2022 event. Details here.
On the date of publication, Eric Fry did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
