Tech stocks sliding further than broader market

San Francisco

AS the US economy muddled along over the last few years, investors paid handsome sums to get in on high-flying technology companies that were among the few pockets of steady growth. Now comes the payback.

As the stock market continues its 2016 slide, technology stocks are falling even further, victims of their own success as well as fears about the global economy and a slowdown in business spending.

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index is down 9.4 per cent this year. The index's technology components are down about 12 per cent, and the closely watched so-called FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google - are down eve…