Need To Know: Tech Stocks Face A Dumpster Fire — But Heres How That Could Be Bullish

Stocks are trying to decide if they’ll keep at their tech-led tumble today, as the holiday weekend creeps closer.

The recent market mayhem involves some undressing, jokes JonesTrading’s Michael O’Rourke.

“Portfolio managers are seeing an opportunity to take profits in the leadership names and perform window undressing into quarter end,” O’Rourke writes.

And Mayflower Advisors co-founder Larry Glazer offers another colorful description of the state of affairs, as he delivers our call of the day.

“There’s no dumpster fire in the U.S. economy, but there may be one brewing in the FANG stocks,” Glazer tells CNBC.

The tech wreck, driven in part by fears that Facebook FB, -4.90% & Friends look on track for greater regulation, is actually a big overall positive for the market and U.S. business, he reckons. Government crackdowns could help small tech companies, advertising outfits and more.

“It’s actually the best thing for the broadening and the prolonging ... of the market rally and the economic recovery,” says Glazer, whose shop manages $2.5 billion in investor money.

“I think investors have it all wrong. This is bullish. This is where regulation actually helps the economy, helps small business. It helps everyone,” he says.

His take on the FANG flameout is at least hard to dispute.

The NYSE FANG+ index — a gauge tracking 10 tech titans — just suffered its biggest-ever drop in its short life, falling nearly 6% yesterday, as the bad news piled up. Mr. Zuckerberg is going to Washington, a storied short seller is targeting Twitter TWTR, -12.03%  , Apple’s AAPL, -2.56% latest iPad left many disappointed, and autonomous-car trouble hit Tesla TSLA, -8.22% and Nvidia NVDA, -7.76%  .

Meanwhile, President Trump reportedly hates Amazon.com AMZN, -3.78%  , not Facebook, and the social network is touting new privacy settings that come before Europe’s new data rules kick in.

Opinion: It’s the beginning of the end for this economic expansion

Key market gauges

Futures for the Dow YMM8, +0.29%  , S&P 500 ESM8, +0.17% and Nasdaq-100 NQM8, -0.26% are higher, erasing earlier losses. That’s after the Dow DJIA, -1.43%  , S&P SPX, -1.73% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, -2.93% finished sharply lower yesterday.

Europe SXXP, -0.09% and Asia have been a sea of red, with tech’s troubles weighing. Oil   CLK8, -0.83% and gold GCJ8, -0.62% are falling, as the dollar index DXY, +0.52% edges up.

See the Market Snapshot column for the latest action.

The chart

Facebook’s pain is Warren Buffett’s gain. The Oracle of Omaha’s Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, -1.62% has moved ahead of the social-media giant if you look at an S&P 500 ranking based on market cap.

While Berkshire and Facebook both have shed market value over the past two months, Facebook’s loss more than doubles Berkshire’s, note Bespoke Investment Group’s analysts. They offer the above chart, which still shows a really tech-heavy market.

Facebook has lost $110 billion in market cap since the S&P’s January peak, Bespoke’s team adds.

Read: Nearly half of Facebook members will use site less

And see: You can log out of Facebook, but you can never leave

The buzz

Shire SHPG, +0.26% SHP, +16.71% looks set for a big up day as Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical 4502, -0.32% said it’s thinking about making a buyout offer for the beaten-down Irish biopharma giant.

Lululemon’s stock LULU, -2.03% has been stretching higher after the clothing retailer’s better-than-expected earnings late yesterday, while Walgreens Boots Alliance WBA, -2.24% and BlackBerry BBRY, +0.00% are on the docket before the opening bell.

Also ahead of the open, watch for readings on fourth-quarter U.S. GDP and advance trade in goods. Pending home sales are slated to hit once trading is underway.

Check out: MarketWatch’s Economic Calendar

If bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.28% makes a “descending triangle measured move,” it could fall to $3,500, says technical analyst Chris Kimble from Kimble Charting Solutions. The cryptocurrency has been trading around $8,000 today.

On the Federal Reserve front, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic is due to take part in an “armchair chat” at the city’s Buckhead Club.

The quote

“A stable and positive relationship with China would prevent the U.S. from launching a military strike.” — Tong Zhao, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, sounds off on why Kim Jong Un paid a surprise visit to Beijing this week.

See: China says Kim Jong Un has pledged to denuclearize Korea

Random reads

Baltimore is now home to the Salvation Army’s first-ever supermarket.

Cambridge Analytica may flame out, but its much-criticized practices won’t.

March Madness: Here’s how Loyola-Chicago could beat a No. 1 seed.

Yucky ducky? This study dishes on the bath toy’s dirty secrets.

Walmart checkout lines won’t have Cosmo anymore.

Other American pastimes remain more popular than hating Facebook:

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