'FAANG Stocks Are Strong Once Again,' Facebook, Amazon, Netflix Hit Record Highs Last Week
Trading in the previous week suggested that the leading United States technology stocks are moving past the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Here's how the so-called "FAANG" stocks performed over the week.
Facebook Hits Record As It Unveils 'Shops'
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) closed 1.5% higher on Friday at an all-time record high of $234.91.
The social media company's shares added 11.4% over the week, as it announced the launch of its e-commerce venture "Facebook Shops."
Loss of advertising revenue hurt the Menlo Park-based company's business during the pandemic, but analysts noted that it benefited from the increased user engagement.
"The Facebook break is pretty spectacular. It's been a long consolidation -- as you pull up that first weekly chart, it's just a beautiful trending parallel channel. ... This $220 break was very, very impressive," Ascent Wealth Partners Managing Director Todd Gordon told CNBC last week.
The stock is up 14.4% year-till-date.
Amazon Soars As It Restarts Non-Essential Deliveries
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) closed 0.4% lower at $2,436.88 on Friday.
The e-commerce giant also reached its record closing price of $2,497.94 earlier on Wednesday, before slipping. Overall, it added 1.1% value to its stock over the week.
Amazon continued to operate during the lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus as an essential business and added 175,000 workers to meet the increased demand.
The company has recently focused on bringing its one- and two-day prime deliveries back on course, including for non-essential items, as coronavirus-related restrictions are lifted.
"Amazon is the big winner in all of this because everyone [putting] off going to the grocery store has ordered directly from Amazon, has ordered anything they need from any store as most retail has been shut down from Amazon," Chantico Global CEO Gina Sanchez said, as reported by CNBC.
"I think Amazon has the longest, broadest story that would come out of this with the trends still intact."
The Seattle-based company's stock is up 31.8% YTD.
Apple To Struggle With Lowered Demand
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) closed 0.6% higher at $318.89 on Friday.
The shares added 3.6% over the week as the company reopened retail stores in the U.S. but remained about 2.5% below the record high of $327.20, reached earlier in February this year.
"Apple, they're such high-priced products that they require very strong consumption and what we're clearly seeing is that this is lasting longer than we've expected and the consumption is going to be very weak," Sanchez told CNBC.
The Cupertino-based company's shares are up 8.6% YTD.
Netflix Hits Record High, But Analyst Warns Of Collapse
Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) closed 1.6% lower at $429.32 on Friday, down nearly 5.5% over the week.
The streaming video-on-demand service's shares also hit an all-time record high of $454.19 earlier in the week.
Netflix has seen a rise in subscriptions and viewership during the lockdown periods imposed across the globe to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Morningstar analyst Neil Macker, in a conversation with Yahoo! Finance, said the streaming company's stock is significantly overvalued and could crash more than 60% soon.
The stock is up about 32.7% YTD.
Alphabet Trails The Other FAANG Stocks
Alphabet Class A shares closed nearly 0.5% higher at $1,413.24 on Friday, adding 2.9% over the week.
The Google parent company's shares remain 7.3% lower than its all-time high closing price of $1,524.87 reached earlier in February.
Sanchez told CNBC that the search engine giant is competing with major broadcasters, Facebook, and others for "an ever-shrinking [advertising] spend in this next coming year."
Alphabet Class A shares are up 5.5% YTD.
The overall performance of the FAANG stocks in the past week have analysts convinced of recovery beyond COVID-19.
"[These] FAANG stocks are strong once again and they're continuing to lead the overall market much like they did [before COVID-19]," Gordon told CNBC.
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