The excitement around artificial intelligence and the surprisingly strong U.S. economy has pushed one major tech ETF to a new all-time high, even as many investors remain skeptical of this year’s rally. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) closed at $178.24 per share on Monday, setting a new record high. The previous high-water mark was from Dec. 27, 2021, according to FactSet. XLK 5Y mountain The XLK closed at a new record high on Monday. The fund, which has more than $51 billion in assets under management and an expense ratio of 0.10%, has now rallied more than 50% from its recent lows last October. The fund dropped 28% last year as investors fled growth stocks with the Federal Reserve aggressively raising interest rates. Because of how sectors are defined, the XLK actually excludes some of the biggest companies that many investors call “tech,” including Amazon and Alphabet . But the Big Tech names that it does hold dominate the fund. “We know about the rising concentration of Tech heavyweights within the S & P 500, but XLK offers that with a steroid boost – AAPL and MSFT are roughly 46% of the fund, plus another 10% for NVDA and AVGO. So that strength is being reflected with the sector at a new high,” Strategas ETF strategist Todd Sohn said in an email. That heavy concentration could be one reason that investors have been reluctant to embrace this rally. The XLK has seen roughly $2 billion of outflows year to date, including more than $700 million over the past month, according to FactSet. The market’s concentration in Big Tech has led many investors to worry that this year’s rally is unsustainable. Nasdaq announced earlier this month that it was doing a special rebalance of the Nasdaq 100 index to dilute the weight of the largest tech stocks, in part because the stocks had become so impactful that index funds were in danger of breaking regulatory rules about diversification. And while there are signs recently that the ” fear of missing out ” is luring people back into the equity market, investors seemingly prefer funds that are broad-based or used equal weighting criteria. The Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) , which has nearly $54 billion in assets under management, has also seen outflows this year. The iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW) has brought in cash but still trails in overall assets with less than $14 billion. There is also an equal weight technology fund — the Invesco S & P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF (RSPT) — that has seen modest inflows so far this year and now has more than $3 billion in assets under management.
