Premarket stocks: Wall Street kills its darlings

A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

New York
CNN
 — 

Verbose writers afflicted with the tendency to deliver copy well above their requested word count are often advised by editors to kill their darlings – to throw out large swaths of stories that they’re particularly fond of.

It appears that Wall Street has also caught on to the concept. This was a miserable year for stocks overall – the S&P 500 is down about 20% in 2022 – but the big surprise is the almost Shakespearean downfall of companies that have dominated markets for years.

Investors are rushing to kill their darlings – er, sell their stocks– and even safe-havens like Apple

(AAPL) and Intel

(INTC) are getting crushed in the stampede.

What’s happening: It’s been a shaky year full of economic uncertainty, geopolitical chaos, elevated inflation and a hawkish Fed. It’s no wonder that markets haven’t fared well – the only thing driving stocks overall from oblivion this year has been the energy sector, up about 60% year-to-date.

But what’s been most surprising is that market-cap titans, traditionally expected to weather storms on Wall Street well, haven’t held up against the rising macroeconomic tides.

Stalwarts – the large, well-established companies that offer long-term growth potential, got crushed. Just look at Apple. Even the Oracle himself, Warren Buffett, thought it was a good idea to purchase more Apple shares in early 2022, but the stock is now down 29% for the year (Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway

(BRKA) is doing fine, though, up over 3% this year). Intel, another blue chip, has fallen 51%.

Tech companies have long been seen as invincible, essentially money-printing machines by investors. That has not been the case this year as Alphabet stock fell nearly 40% and Microsoft

(MSFT) by 28%. Facebook parent company Meta, down 64% this year as it pursues virtual reality dreams, experienced the largest drop in market value over a single day of trading in February. The company lost $232 billion.

Other recent…