Healthcare Stocks Taking Off as Tech Companies Tumble

Technology and commodities companies have been among the hardest hit over the past few weeks, as major players move from cyclical stocks to more defensive areas like healthcare stocks. In the technology sector, the worst of the sell-off has been in the optical stocks. That's a shame because many of these stocks finally looked like they were on the verge of emerging from long bear markets. But the optical stocks - so popular during the tech bubble - were kicked in the head whenFinisar Corp.(Nasdaq: FNSR ) issued a very weak outlook for its April quarter. Finisar shares lost 38.5% last Wednesday and fellow industry giantJDS UniphaseCorp. (Nasdaq: JDSU ) took a 17% hit. Just two months ago, we were talking about how it looked like these guys were back - well, so much for that. Semiconductors are also on the run, with Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR ) down more than 7.5% in the past week andLam ResearchCorp. (Nasdaq: LRCX ) down 10.5% in that time. These companies had been very popular until about two weeks ago, so it's remarkable how quickly sentiment can change. I've been racking my brain for an explanation as to how the semiconductor companies could go south so fast, and I have come up with four rationales.