MW This might be the best time for you to load up on Big Tech stocks
By Philip van Doorn
Also in Weekend Reads: How to recover from financial mistakes, solutions for a tax problem and advice from the Moneyist
Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings ratio has declined significantly this year, even though the stock has only dropped slightly.
If you are a long-term investor who believes giant U.S. tech-oriented companies will resume leading the broad stock market higher, this might be the perfect time to jump in.
On Tuesday in the Need to Know column, Barbara Kollmeyer shared the call of the day from Goldman Sachs's chief global equity strategist, Peter Oppenheimer, who believes investors have a generational opportunity to buy technology stocks.
You can sign up here to have the Need to Know newsletter waiting in your inbox each morning.
More: Big Tech stocks look like especially good deals as investors eye what is next for the market
Through Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA was down 1.6% from Feb. 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel began their attack against Iran. The S&P 500 SPX was down 0.8% for the same period, but tech stocks had started perk up, as evidenced by a 0.7% gain for the Nasdaq Composite Index $(COMP)$.
Now let's look at forward price-to-earnings valuations for the largest five holdings of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500 by holding all of its stocks weighted by market capitalization. Together, these stocks make up 28.5% of the SPY portfolio.
These are Thursday's closing prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by LSEG. The table also shows what the forward P/E ratios were at the end of 2025. To the right, the table shows this year's price changes and now much the rolling consensus 12-month EPS estimates have increased.
Company Forward P/E Forward P/E as of Dec. 31 Five-year avg. forward P/E 2026 price change Increase in rolling 12-month EPS estimate Nvidia 20.2 24.5 37.5 -1.4% 19.5% Apple 29.0 32.0 27.8 -4.2% 5.9% Microsoft 20.0 27.4 30.8 -22.9% 6.0% Amazon 27.7 28.5 51.7 1.2% 3.9% Alphabet 26.3 27.9 24.0 1.8% 8.0% Source: LSEG
Nvidia (NVDA) now trades at a forward P/E of 20.2. The stock has declined slightly this year, but the rolling consensus 12-month EPS estimate has increased 19.5%. Microsoft $(MSFT)$ now trades at a forward P/E of 20; its stock has declined 23% this year, while its rolling 12-month EPS estimate has increased by 6%. The S&P 500 trades at a forward P/E of 19.4, while its information technology sector XX:SP500.45 trades at a forward P/E of 20.
Now let's look at projected compound annual growth rates for revenue and earnings per share for the five stocks, the S&P 500 and the IT sector, from 2025 through 2028. These are based on calendar-year results and estimates, as adjusted by LSEG for companies (such as Apple and Nvidia) whose fiscal reporting periods don't match the calendar:
Company Three-year estimated sales CAGR through 2028 Three-year estimated EPS CAGR through 2028
Nvidia 39.1% 41.2%
Apple 7.3% 10.1%
Microsoft 16.4% 15.4%
Amazon 12.2% 18.8%
Alphabet 15.4% 12.6%
S&P 500 5.6% 14.8%
S&P 500 Information Technology Sector 16.7% 25.0%
Source: LSEG
Nvidia stands out with much higher projected growth rates for revenue and earnings than the S&P 500 or the IT sector.
Nvidia's valuation and growth projections make a compelling long-term investment case, unless you expect a near-term slowdown for the hardware build-out to support the generative artificial intelligence technology that the company has been dominating with its graphics processing units.
More tech sector coverage
One of the most important trends being covered by the MarketWatch technology team is the evolution of generative-AI services developed by Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which are expected to raise money soon through initial public offerings of stock.
Here's a sampling of AI-related coverage from MarketWatch's Technology team:
-- Anthropic appears to have overtaken OpenAI on this key financial metric
-- CoreWeave's stock pops as new Anthropic deal highlights intense scramble for AI compute
-- Intel's stock is set to extend its hot streak. Here's the company's latest win.
-- Software stocks are having a 'full-fledged breakdown' - and they may fall even further
-- Three factors that could get software stocks going again after a brutal stretch
Banks are heading into earnings season
Earnings season begins next week, with the big banks kicking off the proceedings. Goldman Sachs $(GS)$ is scheduled to report its first-quarter financial results at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. JPMorgan Chase $(JPM)$, Citigroup $(CUL3)$ and Wells Fargo $(WFC)$ will report on Tuesday, followed by Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley $(MS)$ on Wednesday.
Here's a look at valuations for shares of 20 large industry players, highlighting three bargain bank stocks.
How to recover from a financial mistake
Don't Short Yourself - MarketWatch's new weekly newsletter - offers smart tips to help you earn and grow your money.
In this week's Don't Short Yourself newsletter, Genna Contino listed four common money mistakes and how to move past them.
More from Genna Contino: Here's how much weight-loss drugs Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo cost - and how to pick the best GLP-1 for you
What to think about the stock market's cease-fire rally
The S&P 500 rose 3.1% over two trading sessions through Thursday, after President Donald Trump announced a two-week cease-fire with Iran. Many stocks rose a lot more than that as investors reacted to the news.
Joy Wiltermuth and Isabel Wang interviewed money managers and traders who shared their opinions on whether or not stocks were rallying too quickly.
Mark Hulbert: The stock-market correction isn't over yet. Here's why the Iran cease-fire is actually a bad omen.
More: Global chaos has become a permanent guest in your portfolio. This strategist says Big Tech and emerging markets are now essentials.
Industry rallies:
-- Why home builders' stocks are getting such a big boost from the cease-fire deal with Iran
-- Health insurers secured a better Medicare Advantage rate for 2027, and their stocks soared
-- These healthcare stocks offer value and rapid profit growth
A simple approach to retirement saving, and how to fix an IRS problem
Beth Pinsker summed up her advice on how to build wealth in two words.
Beth Pinsker writes the Fix My Portfolio problem, which typically features advice on retirement planning, long-term investing and strategies to minimize federal income taxes.
This article about building wealth is based on a simple idea, and you should read and share it even if you have already taken Beth's advice.
This week Beth helped a MarketWatch reader whose mother owes the Internal Revenue Service $130,000 in back taxes, interest and fees. Here is what her children can do to resolve this tax problem.
As tax season ends: You have until April 15 to get this $8,000 Roth IRA freebie
Oil and the cease-fire
Following Trump's announcement of a cease-fire with Iran, front-month contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude oil (CL00) fell 16% on Wednesday. But as of Friday, the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed.
Here is coverage of the energy market in the wake of the cease-fire:
-- Here's how much money Iran can make charging tolls on one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil
-- Exxon and Shell reveal production hits from Iran war
-- The U.S. has more natural gas than it knows what to do with - helping Americans weather the Iran oil crisis
'FOBO' and the job market
That stands for "fear of becoming obsolete." Andrew Keshner outlined what job seekers are prioritizing and how they can get what they want.
Advice from the Moneyist
Quentin Fottrell is the Moneyist.
Quentin Fottrell - the Moneyist - helped a woman with a complicated question about an estate plan suggested by her husband. The arrangement appears to be generous, but it could shut out her sons if she dies first.
More advice from the Moneyist:
-- 'I am at a crossroads': I'm 37 and have $1.3 million. Do I stop working to spend time with my young children?
-- 'I feel overwhelmed': I'm 56 and only have $60,000 in my IRA. Is it too late for me?
MW This might be the best time for you to load up on Big Tech stocks
By Philip van Doorn
Also in Weekend Reads: How to recover from financial mistakes, solutions for a tax problem and advice from the Moneyist
Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings ratio has declined significantly this year, even though the stock has only dropped slightly.
If you are a long-term investor who believes giant U.S. tech-oriented companies will resume leading the broad stock market higher, this might be the perfect time to jump in.
On Tuesday in the Need to Know column, Barbara Kollmeyer shared the call of the day from Goldman Sachs's chief global equity strategist, Peter Oppenheimer, who believes investors have a generational opportunity to buy technology stocks.
You can sign up here to have the Need to Know newsletter waiting in your inbox each morning.
More: Big Tech stocks look like especially good deals as investors eye what is next for the market
Through Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA was down 1.6% from Feb. 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel began their attack against Iran. The S&P 500 SPX was down 0.8% for the same period, but tech stocks had started perk up, as evidenced by a 0.7% gain for the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP).
Now let's look at forward price-to-earnings valuations for the largest five holdings of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500 by holding all of its stocks weighted by market capitalization. Together, these stocks make up 28.5% of the SPY portfolio.
These are Thursday's closing prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by LSEG. The table also shows what the forward P/E ratios were at the end of 2025. To the right, the table shows this year's price changes and now much the rolling consensus 12-month EPS estimates have increased.
Company Forward P/E Forward P/E as of Dec. 31 Five-year avg. forward P/E 2026 price change Increase in rolling 12-month EPS estimate
Nvidia 20.2 24.5 37.5 -1.4% 19.5%
Apple 29.0 32.0 27.8 -4.2% 5.9%
Microsoft 20.0 27.4 30.8 -22.9% 6.0%
Amazon 27.7 28.5 51.7 1.2% 3.9%
Alphabet 26.3 27.9 24.0 1.8% 8.0%
Source: LSEG
Nvidia (NVDA) now trades at a forward P/E of 20.2. The stock has declined slightly this year, but the rolling consensus 12-month EPS estimate has increased 19.5%. Microsoft (MSFT) now trades at a forward P/E of 20; its stock has declined 23% this year, while its rolling 12-month EPS estimate has increased by 6%. The S&P 500 trades at a forward P/E of 19.4, while its information technology sector XX:SP500.45 trades at a forward P/E of 20.
Now let's look at projected compound annual growth rates for revenue and earnings per share for the five stocks, the S&P 500 and the IT sector, from 2025 through 2028. These are based on calendar-year results and estimates, as adjusted by LSEG for companies (such as Apple and Nvidia) whose fiscal reporting periods don't match the calendar:
Company Three-year estimated sales CAGR through 2028 Three-year estimated EPS CAGR through 2028
Nvidia 39.1% 41.2%
Apple 7.3% 10.1%
Microsoft 16.4% 15.4%
Amazon 12.2% 18.8%
Alphabet 15.4% 12.6%
S&P 500 5.6% 14.8%
S&P 500 Information Technology Sector 16.7% 25.0%
Source: LSEG
Nvidia stands out with much higher projected growth rates for revenue and earnings than the S&P 500 or the IT sector.
Nvidia's valuation and growth projections make a compelling long-term investment case, unless you expect a near-term slowdown for the hardware build-out to support the generative artificial intelligence technology that the company has been dominating with its graphics processing units.
More tech sector coverage
One of the most important trends being covered by the MarketWatch technology team is the evolution of generative-AI services developed by Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which are expected to raise money soon through initial public offerings of stock.
Here's a sampling of AI-related coverage from MarketWatch's Technology team:
-- Anthropic appears to have overtaken OpenAI on this key financial metric
-- CoreWeave's stock pops as new Anthropic deal highlights intense scramble for AI compute
-- Intel's stock is set to extend its hot streak. Here's the company's latest win.
-- Software stocks are having a 'full-fledged breakdown' - and they may fall even further
-- Three factors that could get software stocks going again after a brutal stretch
Banks are heading into earnings season
Earnings season begins next week, with the big banks kicking off the proceedings. Goldman Sachs (GS) is scheduled to report its first-quarter financial results at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) will report on Tuesday, followed by Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) on Wednesday.
Here's a look at valuations for shares of 20 large industry players, highlighting three bargain bank stocks.
How to recover from a financial mistake
Don't Short Yourself - MarketWatch's new weekly newsletter - offers smart tips to help you earn and grow your money.
In this week's Don't Short Yourself newsletter, Genna Contino listed four common money mistakes and how to move past them.
More from Genna Contino: Here's how much weight-loss drugs Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo cost - and how to pick the best GLP-1 for you
What to think about the stock market's cease-fire rally
The S&P 500 rose 3.1% over two trading sessions through Thursday, after President Donald Trump announced a two-week cease-fire with Iran. Many stocks rose a lot more than that as investors reacted to the news.
Joy Wiltermuth and Isabel Wang interviewed money managers and traders who shared their opinions on whether or not stocks were rallying too quickly.
Mark Hulbert: The stock-market correction isn't over yet. Here's why the Iran cease-fire is actually a bad omen.
More: Global chaos has become a permanent guest in your portfolio. This strategist says Big Tech and emerging markets are now essentials.
Industry rallies:
-- Why home builders' stocks are getting such a big boost from the cease-fire deal with Iran
-- Health insurers secured a better Medicare Advantage rate for 2027, and their stocks soared
-- These healthcare stocks offer value and rapid profit growth
A simple approach to retirement saving, and how to fix an IRS problem
Beth Pinsker summed up her advice on how to build wealth in two words.
Beth Pinsker writes the Fix My Portfolio problem, which typically features advice on retirement planning, long-term investing and strategies to minimize federal income taxes.
This article about building wealth is based on a simple idea, and you should read and share it even if you have already taken Beth's advice.
This week Beth helped a MarketWatch reader whose mother owes the Internal Revenue Service $130,000 in back taxes, interest and fees. Here is what her children can do to resolve this tax problem.
As tax season ends: You have until April 15 to get this $8,000 Roth IRA freebie
Oil and the cease-fire
Following Trump's announcement of a cease-fire with Iran, front-month contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude oil (CL00) fell 16% on Wednesday. But as of Friday, the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed.
Here is coverage of the energy market in the wake of the cease-fire:
-- Here's how much money Iran can make charging tolls on one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil
-- Exxon and Shell reveal production hits from Iran war
-- The U.S. has more natural gas than it knows what to do with - helping Americans weather the Iran oil crisis
'FOBO' and the job market
That stands for "fear of becoming obsolete." Andrew Keshner outlined what job seekers are prioritizing and how they can get what they want.
Advice from the Moneyist
Quentin Fottrell is the Moneyist.
Quentin Fottrell - the Moneyist - helped a woman with a complicated question about an estate plan suggested by her husband. The arrangement appears to be generous, but it could shut out her sons if she dies first.
More advice from the Moneyist:
-- 'I am at a crossroads': I'm 37 and have $1.3 million. Do I stop working to spend time with my young children?
-- 'I feel overwhelmed': I'm 56 and only have $60,000 in my IRA. Is it too late for me?
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
April 10, 2026 12:08 ET (16:08 GMT)
MW This might be the best time for you to load up -2-
-- 'Our FICO score is excellent': My husband and I are in our 70s. Do we take out a $10,000 loan for a new roof?
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-Philip van Doorn
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April 10, 2026 12:08 ET (16:08 GMT)
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