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Apple and Microsoft are leading the record market rally in 2019.
The two have amassed a collective $819 billion in market cap this year, leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average to all-time highs.
If those gains were stripped from the Dow, the blue-chip index would be nearly 1,100 points lower than its current level, according to data compiled by CNBC last week.
Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, is betting on both to continue to outperform the market.
“We do think they can continue and we really don’t have a preference between the two,” Wald said on CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “We do see these top-down tailwinds from both a rising market — we think the bull market continues into 2020 — and I think you got support from a relatively strong technology sector as well.”
In Apple, for example, “we see this recent move higher as a breakout versus the market dating back to 2012 — a six- to seven-year relative breakout that portends to additional leadership,” said Wald. “Apple has also cleared its resistance from a 2018 peak so we have a rising trend, no signs of topping out.”
Michael Bapis, managing director at Rockefeller Capital Management, says these stocks are buys for the long haul.
“Technology is just booming right now. I think we’re in about a 30- to 50-year technology boom period that we’ll never see in the next 500 years so let’s take those two companies which are very, very positive on growing earnings and margins, and I like that they’re leading not only the technology industry but they’re leading the market,” Bapis said during the same segment.
While Apple and Microsoft have added 70% and 49% this year, respectively, the XLK technology ETF has gained 42%. Tech is the best-performing S&P 500 sector this year.
“I would go with both of them with the momentum. They are getting a little expensive relative to earnings, but I think their growth will be outpacing that expensiveness over the next stage,” said Bapis.
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