Buy this dip in Apple, Microsoft and these other tech stocks before they're out of reach, says analyst

Critical information for the U.S. trading day.

It has been a bad week for technology stocks. The Nasdaq tumbled 2.7% on Wednesday and fell a further 2.1% on Thursday.

So buy the dip before tech stocks move at least 25% higher this year, says veteran tech analyst Daniel Ives of investment firm Wedbush in our call of the day.

"The risk-off trade for tech has been a painful one for tech investors this week as worries around high valuations, bubble fears, rotation trade, rising yields and a focus on reopening plays take center stage," Ives said.

But, according to Ives, the digital transformation is just getting started and will last a number of years among companies in cloud, cybersecurity, e-commerce and 5G. These subsectors are the life of the tech party, with consumer and enterprise demand catalyzing a "multiyear growth boom" ahead, the analyst said.

Though collaboration-software groups like Zoom (ZM), Microsoft Teams, Slack $(WORK)$, and Citrix $(CTXS)$ will see "moderating growth" into 2022, many chief executives have told Wedbush that 30% to 40% of employees could remain working remotely in some form. This will prompt companies to "rip the Band-Aid off and go aggressive" with cloud transformations, Ives said.

Investors should use the current market weakness to ensure that the following companies are in their portfolios, according to Ives: Apple $(AAPL)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$, digital document specialist DocuSign $(DOCU)$, AI pioneer Nuance $(NUAN)$, and cybersecurity groups Zscaler $(ZS)$, Palo Alto $(PANW)$, and SailPoint $(SAIL)$.

Across the wider sector, Wedbush predicts that tech stocks will move at least 25% upward in the next year. That will be driven by big names Facebook (FB), Amazon $(AMZN)$, Apple, Netflix $(NFLX)$ and Google parent Alphabet $(GOOGL)$(GOOGL), as well as cloud and cybersecurity stocks, despite the recent selloff, Ives said.

More broadly, Ives said that Uber $(UBER)$ and Lyft $(LYFT)$ -- "disruptive tech recovery names" -- remain Wedbush's favorite "reopening plays," with profitability on the horizon and a massive surge in food delivery.

And while tech regulation is a long-term risk, "it still remains a Goldilocks environment for tech stocks with the Biden administration," according to Wedbush. Ives sees President Joe Biden as likely to ramp down tensions in the "Cold Tech War" brewing between the U.S. and China, as well as encourage cybersecurity initiatives.

Market bears will come out of hibernation to warn investors that the tech boom and bull rally is over, Ives said. Wedbush believes this is "a golden opportunity to own the secular tech winners for the next 12 to 18 months at compelling valuations given some of these selloffs."

The buzz

The House of Representatives wrapped up the week after police discovered a QAnon-linked militia plot , who was killed during an arrest in May 2020.

On the economic front , initial jobless claims were the headline figure on Thursday. 745,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, which was slightly less than expected but an increase from 730,000 the week prior. There were 4.3 million continuing jobless claims in the week of Feb. 20, down from 4.42 million in the week before that, and U.S. factory orders for January rose 2.6%, slightly ahead of the 2.3% expected. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank is paying attention to the recent bond market selloff during a Wall Street Journal webinar.

SpaceX's Starship -- a prototype for a future Mars mission -- looked like it aced a landing to make founder Elon Musk proud .

The CEO of Texas' power grid has been fired . The grid suffered a fatal failure in a freezing February that left millions without heat or electricity for days in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.

The European Medicines Agency, the drug regulator for the European Union, has started a review of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia.

The Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K. competition regulator, is investigating Apple over the terms and conditions governing developers' access to the App Store.

The online Indian retailer Flipkart, mostly owned by Walmart $(WMT)$, is considering a U.S. listing through merging with a special-purpose acquisition company that said the company could seek a valuation of at least $35 billion.

The markets

Stocks continued Wednesday's big slide to move move deeper into the red. European stocks were mixed but mostly lower while major Asian indexes tumbled more than 2%.