Although technology-oriented funds have risen 31% in the past 12 months ending April 30, investors continue to withdraw money from them, The Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, they have been bailing out of them every year since 2001, and in the first quarter of this year alone, they withdrew $1.1 billion.
While a good number of technology stocks soared an incredible 100% or more during the dot-com boom, ever since the technology bubble burst, investors can't seem to shake the painful memory of seeing their investments fall by as much as 30% or 40% a year.
Nonetheless, over the past year, technology companies, particularly small and medium sized firms, have been delivering strong earnings. There's been particular strength among companies that produce computer hardware equipment or that are consumer-oriented. Bigger tech stocks, such as
Sectors that have been attracting attention include natural resources and gold-oriented funds. Natural resources funds have risen 41.7% in the three years ended April 30, and have taken in $22 billion in inflows since the beginning of 2004. Gold-oriented funds have risen 42.14% in the period and netted $2.3 billion in inflows.
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
