Google, Apple Won't Let Us Down, Says Fund Manager

Talk about a New Year's hangover.

The (BIOPX Quote)Baron iOpportunity fund finished 2007 on a high note, up 21% for the year or more than double the Nasdaq's return. Riding the lengthy coattails of tech superstars Apple(AAPL Quote), Google(GOOG Quote) and Research In Motion(RIMM Quote), the four-star-rated technology fund had momentum to spare.

Then the ball above Times Square dropped to ring in 2008. It seems to have landed, unfortunately, right on some of the fund's biggest winners. The iOpportunity fund, which has returned an average of 23% annually over the past five years, is down 15.5% year-to-date, but fund manager Michael Lippert is confident that the turn is at hand.

"Many of our big-cap tech stocks were up 100% or more last year," says Lippert. "One can only expect the market would take some back. And high-multiple stocks are being hit the hardest as concerns about the economy snowball." ...