Companies that rode Covid-19 pandemic boom get reality check
NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - While the Covid-19 pandemic battered the economy, tech companies and consumer companies powered by digital technology stood out as islands of growth. But with coronavirus cases and deaths falling, more than 2 million Americans a day getting vaccinations and the overall economic outlook improving, investors are starting to turn elsewhere. In the past month, the shares of smaller Covid tech darlings have fallen sharply - Zoom off 18 per cent and Peloton 24 per cent. Zoom's price is down 40 per cent from its all-time high, reached in October. The largest tech companies have dropped less, but even they have not been immune to the changing mood. Apple, for example, has lost 10 per cent in the last month. The real turning point goes back to Nov 9, said David Readerman, a hedge fund portfolio manager. That was when Pfizer became the first company to announce a highly effective Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer's chief executive, Dr Albert Bourla, called it "a great day for science and humanity." That announcement, Mr Readerman said, "was the start of what we're seeing now - visibility on reopening and economic recovery." Analysts predict US economic growth this year of 5 per c...
