Big Tech stocks retake the lead

The comeuppance of tech's behemoths didn't last long.

Driving the news: Mega cap tech stocks have bolted out of the gate this year, leaving the overall market in the dust.

By the numbers: The S&P 500 is up roughly 4.9% so far. The Nasdaq composite is up more than 13%.

• Year-to-date gains for tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet, are bigger, with the shares rising 24%, 17% and 15%, respectively.
• Meta and Tesla shares have seen a gargantuan rally, with Mark Zuckerberg's company up nearly 70% and Elon Musk's up nearly 60%.

Between the lines: Big Tech is benefiting from both a drop in interest rates — especially influential on tech shares — and the sector's newfound appreciation for appealing to Wall Street with time-tested tactics like mass layoffs and big stock buybacks.

The bottom line: The market would be underwater this year if not for these companies. In a recent note, Goldman Sachs analysts estimated that without the six largest tech issues, the S&P would have been down 2% for the year at the end of last week, instead of up more than 3%.