Investors Are Fleeing to Apple and Selling NVIDIA and Tesla: Here’s Why It’s the Only Magnificent 7 Stock to Outperform in 2026

Investors have been rushing to safe havens across the stock market, and that's been good news for one stock you might not expect to be a safe haven. That's Apple.

I'm Eric Bleeker with 24/7 Wall Street and we are looking at a developing situation where six out of seven magnificent seven stocks are now underperforming the index in 2026. Let's bring up the returns. Apple has seen a 27.1% return. The S&P 500 is at 11.7% gain. Nvidia below that level, 10%. Microsoft 8.6%, Amazon 4.1%, and then three of the magnificent seven are now in negative territory with Meta at -6.6%, Google at -10.4%, and Tesla at -11.1%.

This is a reversal of what we've seen in recent years where technology stocks, especially the magnificent seven have driven a disproportionate amount of total returns. And here's another stat that may kind of blow your mind a little bit that technology is now one of the only sectors trading for a cheaper Ford PE than its 30-year average. This data comes from Mike Zicardi.

And we find consumer discretionary stocks trading at the 77th percentile, meaning they are more expensive than they have been 77% of the time. Consumer staples at the 90th percentile, industrials at 89%, health care at 81%, utilities at 84%, materials 75%, financials 67%. The only sectors that as far as their Ford PE, that are cheap right now, well, that would be technology at its exact median, communication services, which is mostly technology companies like Facebook, at the 7th percentile and energy at the 43rd percentile.

The bottom line here is that as we have entered what is akin to a stealth bear market with the S&P 500 near all-time highs, but many of the underlying stocks significantly off recent highs, especially stocks with exposure to AI itself.

We are now seeing so much of a rotation into what is perceived as riskless assets or not riskless, but lower risk assets that most of these sectors that are outside technology are now trading at extremely rich multiples relative to their historical averages, while technology is sinking actually into cheaper levels that it's seen across the past 30 years.

all in the midst of what is widely seen as an AI bubble, which brings up two scenarios. Scenario number one, that AI spending continues to increase, that the investments from these companies, uh, well, it will not be 100% prudent, but continues to provide growth for these companies. It will likely mean that the majority of the magnificent seven outperforms in the coming years.

The second scenario is that AI truly is a bubble that uh spending forecasts need to be cut and that many of these stocks have spent way too much. This is going to lead to more negative downside for companies like Nvidia and likely once again, investors continuing to flow into Apple. So, while a lot of investors see the Magnificent 7 as a uniform group, what we are seeing in 2026 is anything but.

with a stock like Apple trading more akin to general Mills than a large technology company, while the rest of the Magnificent 7 trades alongside sentiment across AI. This has been your look into why Apple is the top performer in the magnificent seven across 2026 and what this means for the future for all your news on the investing space. Make sure to keep tuning in to 24/7 Wall Street.