Investors ditch '15 winners and head for safe havens

New York

FUND managers who relied on the so-called FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon.com, Netflix, and Google - to boost their performance numbers in 2015 are cutting ties as the global economy looks weaker than many expected, leaving last year's outperformers in the midst of a deep selloff.

The group of stocks that could do no wrong last year now seems like it can do little right. Amazon.com Inc is down 28.7 per cent for the year, Netflix has slumped 27.6 per cent, and Google parent Alphabet Inc has dropped 11.4 per cent over the same time. Only Facebook Inc entered this week with a flat performance for the year before sliding 5.2 per cent in midday trading on Monday, or about half the 10.2 per cent the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index has fallen since the start of January.