Tech Sentiment Hits 16-Month Low With Nasdaq Facing 6,000 Hurdle

(Bloomberg) -- Skeptical the rotation is real? Looking at proxies for demand in tech stocks, a case can be made that it is.

With the Nasdaq 100 repeatedly failing to push past 6,000, large speculators last week reduced their net long positions in mini futures tracking the gauge to the lowest level since May 2016, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. ETF investors pulled almost $900 million from tech-focused funds over the past five days, more than any other sector tracked by Bloomberg.

All this as the FANG-dominated group cedes leadership to bank and energy stocks, a process that has been fueled by higher bond yields, a stabilizing dollar and the release of President Donald Trump's tax overhaul.

Neither does the technical picture look promising, with the latest round-number resistance proving harder to clear. The Nasdaq 100 on Monday crossed 6,000 for the sixth time in a month and failed to hold on. It has closed above the level just once, on Sept. 13. The price action is in stark contrast with earlier this year, when the index powered through 5,000 on Jan. 6 and never looked back.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lu Wang in New York at lwang8@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arie Shapira at ashapira3@bloomberg.net, Chris Nagi, Richard Richtmyer