The recent five-week upswing in technology stocks was the longest since the market's peak in November 2021

After a 3.3% increase over the course of the last week, the Nasdaq has posted its sixth consecutive weekly gain. The tech-heavy index has now gone seven weeks without a loss, the longest such run since November 2021. The Nasdaq has rebounded by 15% so far in 2023 after suffering its worst year since 2008 last year.

Investors were preparing for electric automaker Rivian's big IPO, the U.S. economy was wrapping up its greatest year for growth since 1984, and the Nasdaq was trading at a record when the last sustained rise in technology stocks occurred.

There's a lot less celebratory champagne being popped this time. Cutting costs is becoming a priority for investors instead of expanding their businesses, and tech CEOs are being praised for their focus on efficiency rather than creativity. When it comes to initial public offerings, the game is over. There are a lot of people losing their jobs right now.

This week's headlines were all about earnings reports from some of the most valuable technology businesses in the world. However, most of the statistics were unfavorable.

For the first time since 2016, Apple's profits came in lower than expected, Google's main business, advertising, went down, and Amazon had its worst year of growth in its 25 years as a public company.

The market's reaction to each report was different, but all four stocks ended the week higher. So did Microsoft's, even though the software giant reported profits the week before and said that sales growth for the current quarter would be slow, at about 3%.

It is vital to maintain tight control over expenses.
This week's best performer was Meta, whose shares rose 23%, the third-best weekly gain in the company's history. Sales were down year over year but still came in slightly above projections, and the outlook for the first quarter was about where analysts had hoped it would be. These numbers were reported in the company's earnings release on Wednesday.

Mark Zuckerberg's vow that "we're focused on making a stronger and more agile corporation" and his proclamation that "2023 will be the Year of Efficiency" were the catalysts for the uptick in stock price.

For Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors, Friday's appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" was "truly the game-changer."

She thinks that Meta's meteoric rise might be because the company refocused on efficiency after getting "acceptable" results in the previous quarter.

A changing world is something that Zuckerberg has recognized. The firm saw annual growth rates between 22% and 58% from the year of its IPO in 2012 until 2021. However, sales fell by 1% in 2022, and Refinitiv's growth forecast for 2023 is only 5%.

On the earnings call, Zuckerberg stated, "I also don't believe it's going to go back to the way it was before," meaning he doesn't anticipate the decreases to continue. In November, Meta stated it would be eliminating 11,000 positions, or 13% of its staff.

Link explained the huge increase in Meta's stock price after reporting by saying that "expectations were so low and the value was so enticing." Nearly two-thirds of the stock's value was wiped out in the last year, which is far greater than the average loss of its mega-cap competitors.

Despite posting its worst sales loss in seven years and navigating what it called "a very tough environment," Apple's stock rose 6.2% this week. CEO Tim Cook blamed a strong dollar, manufacturing challenges in China with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, and the macroeconomic situation for the company's poor financial performance.

Analyst at Neuberger Berman Dan Flax said on Friday's "Squawk Box" that "Apple is handling what is, of course, a very challenging market fairly effectively overall." The market will start to reflect the return to growth in the next few months and quarters. Despite these macro problems, we still enjoy the name.

Amazon's next CEO, Andy Jassy, who will take over for Jeff Bezos in the middle of 2021, took the uncommon step of participating in Thursday's earnings call with investors after the business published a weaker-than-expected estimate for the first quarter. More than 18,000 positions have been eliminated since Amazon's layoffs started in January.

This final quarter marked the conclusion of Jassy's first full year in his current capacity, and he credited the atypical elements of the economy and his company for leading him to believe that this would be a good time to participate.

Amazon grew quickly during the flu epidemic, and it later admitted that it hired too many people during that time. Now, cost management is a top priority for the company.

"We're making significant efforts to reduce expenses," Jassy remarked.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, is likewise cutting back. Last month, the firm stated that it would be eliminating 12,000 positions. Disappointing revenues at YouTube due to a drop in ad expenditure and difficulty in the cloud sector due to companies cutting back on spending contributed to a revenue shortfall for the company in the fourth quarter.

Ruth Porat, who is in charge of Alphabet's finance department, recently told CNBC's Deirdre Bosa that the company is hiring a lot less in order to ensure long-term growth that is profitable.

While Friday's sell-off wiped off some of the week's gains, Alphabet shares still closed the week up 5.4%. For the year, the stock price has increased by 19%.

If the Nasdaq's current uptrend continues and a sixth week of gains is recorded, it would tie the longest advance since the period that ended in January 2020, just before the COVID epidemic struck the United States.

This means that investors will be focusing on earnings reports from smaller corporations. They will hear from companies including Pinterest, Robinhood, Affirm, and Cloudflare in the next week.

The semiconductor industry was another bright spot in technology this week. As with consumer technology businesses, there wasn't a lot of growth to attract investors.

On Tuesday, AMD reported a sales and profit increase, but it also told investors to expect a 10% drop in revenue compared to the same period last year. AMD's main rival, Intel, had a terrible quarter and predicted a 40% drop in sales for the March quarter.

Even so, AMD gained 14% for the week, while Intel gained about 8%. In addition to these companies, Texas Instruments and Nvidia also saw significant growth.

A surplus of components at PC and server manufacturers has led to dropping costs for semiconductor sector components, including memory and central processors. After a terrible year in 2022, shares are on the upswing due to expectations that firms would benefit from a slowdown in the Federal Reserve's rate hikes and lower inflation data.

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