Analysts doubted Apple this year, and now they are sorry. Money managers are eating crow after its shares rose four times more than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Investors who stuck with those companies that were winners from the first five years lost out because they stayed away from Apple, Inc. shares. In 2013, Apple rose only 5.4 percent, its second-worst year in the last 10, while Amazon’s went up 59 percent. Amazon is now down 23 percent for 2014. Chipmakers are up 31 percent, the highest among the 24 industries listed in the S&P 500, because investors expect a pickup in technology spending. According to the chief investment officer at New Amsterdam Partners in New York, “everything needs semiconductors to run on and you need high-tech nuts and bolts.”
