Nasdaq just posted its worst month since December. How the smart money played it

Published Wed, Sep 6 20233:13 PM EDTUpdated Wed, Sep 6 20238:49 PM EDT

Investors on the hunt for technology bargains may want to take heed of how long-standing tech investors handled the tumult — using pullbacks like August's drop in the Nasdaq to scoop up favored names at bargain prices. Although 2023 is so far turning out to be a mirror image of 2022, with tech stocks triumphant as excitement grows around the promise of artificial intelligence, that rally met some pushback in August. The tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq-100 indexes notched their worst month of the year last month, and their weakest performance since December 2022. .NDX 1M mountain Nasdaq-100 over the last month As some tech stock prices pulled back, however, many portfolio managers used the occasion to scoop up some favored AI picks. And, despite volatility that's expected to continue in the fourth quarter, they say there's no better time to find opportunities. "If we have a dip, I would be buying," said Independent Solutions Wealth Management's Paul Meeks, who's looked at the group for more than 30 years. "I don't think that we're going to have any sort of tech plunge, but except for a couple of maybe highfliers, we've seen the bulk of the tech gains this year." August anxiety? Last month's pullback came as no shock to many veteran technology investors. In fact, Meeks had been bracing for a pullback and consolidation in the sector for months, viewing technology's run as warranted but still evident of having run "too far too fast." The downtick in popular tech mega caps and semiconductor makers followed stellar returns through July and came despite a host of better-than-feared quarterly results and a second consecutive blowout quarter from Nvidia. Big August losers included popular AI-connected names Marvell Technology and Advanced Micro Devices , which shed more than 10% and 7%, respectively. Meta Platforms slumped 7%, while Apple lost more than 4%. Fortinet was the worst performing stock in the Nasdaq-100, slumping 23%. Some major AI winners did manage to buck August's downtrend, however. Nvidia , for example, jumped 5.6% even as the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.6%. Investors may be worried that the technology trade has hit its peak, according to Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster, who has analyzed or invested in the sector since the days of the dot-com bubble. "There's this immediate anxiety from investors [that] this as good as it gets, for now," he said. "It's a psychology game. What investors need to see is the September numbers [to] give them some assurance that good things can continue to happen." Building small positions Amid the August pullback, Meeks built positions in some favored AI names. He recommends investors looking to amass stakes in popular tech stocks use pullbacks to open small positions they can slowly build on. The companies on his radar include names he's been betting on for the better part of the year, such as Marvell, Broadcom , Taiwan Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices. He's also keeping an eye on Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems on the software side during any episodes of weakness. MRVL 1M mountain Marvell Technology shares pull back Munster used August's volatility to scoop up some shares of Etsy . While not a dominant player in the AI arms race, he believes Wall Street is underappreciating the degree it can benefit from AI fueling creativity. Elsewhere, difficulties in the sector last month gave AXS Investments CEO Greg Bassuk an opportunity to buy product and services companies he sees benefiting from AI over the long term. He cited Adobe , with its growing customer base and chance to revolutionize content creation by leveraging AI. Another beneficiary of AI is Salesforce , a leader in customer-relationship management solutions, he said. Broadcom shares pulled back last week despite better-than-expected results as investors seemingly paid closer attention to its in-line forward guidance. Still, it should gain from AI over the long haul as demand grows for wireless connectivity and networking solutions, Bassuk said. Bassuk added that even the largest tech companies will see ups and downs the rest of this year. "Each of them went through periods that they were down" multiple percentage points in August, he said. "Those are the kind of dips that we would recommend [investors] take a serious look at as buying opportunities."