High-quality tech can survive 'witch's brew' of Russia, Fed risks - Evercore analyst
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Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney said Monday that stock market volatility related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine added to the "witch's brew" of concerns for the tech sector, but investors can weather the uncertainty by turning to "highest-quality" names in the sector.
Speaking to CNBC, the Evercore ISI head of internet research pointed to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) as examples of "the names in terms of business models and in valuations" that have performed best during the recent volatility. 
Mahaney noted that these have performed significantly better than "future-profitability, high-multiple stocks," which have seen some of the heaviest selling during recent market downturns.
While conceding that the Ukraine invasion added geopolitical risk, Mahaney pinpointed interest rates as the main concern for tech stocks. He argued that worries about Federal Reserve policy have been the main source of pressure on the more speculative parts of the market.
The Evercore analyst contended that the high-quality names will offer a refuge for "the foreseeable future, two or three months," at which point the situation on interest rates should become clearer.
At that point, "you'll start seeing high-growth, high-multiple names come back, but we're still a ways from that," Mahaney said.
To underline Mahaney's point, GOOGL and AMZN have both posted declines between 7% and 8% for 2022 so far. This almost exactly tracks the S&P 500, which has dropped a little less than 8% since the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKK), which focuses on more speculative tech investments, has dropped more than 28% -- a retreat that's about four times as steep as the broader market or the more established tech players. You can see the comparison in this chart.