It’s been a rough year for the tech sector, as investors pull away from growth stocks like tech amid soaring inflation, rising interest rates and other headwinds that keep investors busy. call for safer bets. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down about 30% this year. That’s worse than the broader S&P 500, which underperformed, with a 17% drop over the same period. Meanwhile, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures at big tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Tesla and even Microsoft have added to the pessimism in the sector. Investor confidence in the sector may have been battered, but top tech investor Paul Meeks said he is now “more optimistic” about the sector than he has been in recent months. still selective. Meeks e-commerce is avoiding the e-commerce space entirely, citing concerns about “fade” online Christmas spending in the US and the return of the Covid shutdown in China. “In China, I’m starting to feel better about the prospects for online sales growth as the government begins to loosen regulations on Chinese tech companies and as there are fewer restrictions on Covid-19, but of course, now that the shutdown due to the pandemic is back in that country,” Meeks, portfolio manager at Independent Solutions Wealth Management, said in notes shared with CNBC. “So investing too much in these Chinese companies is also too risky. [internet] now although I prefer them to US stocks as they have better upside potential when the Chinese economy picks up again as their valuations are much cheaper and therefore they are more attractive than with US stocks,” he added. , Meeks said he prefers JD.com to Alibaba and Amazon, though he suggests that “investors wait to buy any of those shares.” The First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR) and the iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF (IHAK) are both down about 22% this year, less than the Nasdaq. 30% off, and Meeks is a fan: “I continue to like cybersecurity, which will grow through any kind of downturn. There’s a company called Palo Alto Networks. I still think the cloud has a lot of it. foot, not only in the US but also abroad,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday. Meeks isn’t the only one optimistic about Palo Alto. About 90% of analysts according to FactSet data, in the cloud segment, Meeks prefers Arista Networks, Microsoft, Oracle and data storage company Pure Storage. In a sign of how bearish the market is, the ProShares UltraShort Semiconductors ETF, an inverse exchange-traded fund that bets on the sector, has rallied nearly 29% this year, while the Industry Index PHLX Semiconductor (SOX) is down about 32% during the same period. However, the semiconductor sector has recovered slightly, with SOX up 14.9% since the end of Q3. Meeks counts some chip stocks in its portfolio. Personally, I like names exposed to the industrial and automotive sectors. His picks include NXP Semiconductor, ASML, Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.