Tech Earnings Weren’t Great. Stocks Are Soaring Anyway.

Technology stocks have kicked off the year with a roar, staging the kind of spirited, widespread rally last seen during the market’s Covid-era surge. There are nearly two dozen tech tickers on my screen with year-to-date gains of more than 50%, and a handful have already doubled. Investors have concluded that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign to raise interest rates is almost finished—and the market’s pendulum has swung decisively back to greed from fear. Just like the good old days.

C3.ai


(ticker: AI) shares have doubled over the last month, I suspect largely because they have the ticker symbol AI—and there’s nothing hotter right now than all things AI.


Avaya Holdings


(AVYA), an old school telecom hardware company on the verge of bankruptcy, has nonsensically doubled since year-end. The triple-digit gainers include battered merchandise like home goods seller


Wayfair


(W), buy-now-pay-later financing outfit


Affirm


(AFRM) and, of all things,


Coinbase Global


(COIN), the cryptocurrency trading house. Makes you wonder if SPACs are about to make a comeback.