Apple, Google looking really bad

Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL) – the stocks you HAD to own – aren’t looking so good now that reality is setting in.

Shares of Google Monday closed down $3.66, or 0.7%, to $497.06. That means shares of the search giant are down 6.3% just in 2015 already, pushing it down 19.1% from its 52-week high. Yes, that means “The GOOG” is nearly in a bear market.

Stop laughing, Apple investors. Shares of the gadget maker also got hit Monday. Shares of Apple Monday fell $2.76, or 2.5%, to $109.25. Shares of Apple are off 1.0% this year and have fallen nearly 9% from their highest point in 52 weeks. That places the stock nearly in correction.

Shares of both these do-no-wrong technology stocks are suffering mightily in the new year, even as analysts and the tech press race to their support. Such rapid declines are big-time reminders that when your neighbor is bragging about a stock they own, it might be hitting its peak.

Google mania reached a peak back in early 2014 when investors and media saw nothing but domination. But now, investors are focusing on how searching for Internet content using “keywords” is increasingly old fashioned as consumers find faster ways to find what they’re looking for.

Google’s image problem Monday wasn’t just about its stock price. Some government officials’ passwords for Google’s YouTube were hacked.

Meanwhile, Google broke the code of honor among software companies to publish a security vulnerability ahead of Microsoft’s scheduled Patch Tuesday. Patch Tuesday is the day that Microsoft issues updates to its operating systems. Meanwhile, Google itself won’t patch an “exploit” found in Android 4.3, which covers 60% of Android’s user base, according to tech blog Neowin.

Add to that growing concern that European regulators are getting less likely to look past a variety of Google business practices.

Back last year, though, when the tech press was lauding Google, such concerns were not apparent. Perhaps these will be short-term pullbacks in both stocks.

But it’s yet another reminder of a key lesson to successful investing: Piling on to stocks when they’re the most popular is usually the wrong thing for investors to do long term.