ETF flows show tech is back in vogue

Investors are once again warming up to the year's hottest sector — technology. Even after regulatory and demand concerns cast a shadow over the industry, the S&P 500 Information Technology Index remains the best performer of 2018, gaining more than 10%. Last week, Facebook Inc. shares surged past their price before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, while the other members of the FANG cohort — Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. — climbed as well. Investors responded by pouring more than $670 million into the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) last week. That's the most in over a year for the world's second-largest technology exchange-traded fund, which has about $22 billion in assets. The ETF's largest holding is Apple Inc., which takes up about 15% of the portfolio, followed by Microsoft Corp. at almost 12%, Alphabet at around 10% and Facebook at 7%.http://www.investmentnews.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/graphics src="/wp-content/uploads2018/05/CI115542515.PNG"

Buyers have been scooping up other tech bets, too. Last week, the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series ETF, the largest technology ETF in the world with $65 billion in assets, took in more than $2 billion, the third best week of inflows for the fund in about a year. Options traders have gotten into the act as well, with the cost of hedging against a 10% drop in QQQ hovering near the lowest since March. (More: Actively managed ETFs slow to catch on)​