With energy stocks and commodities possibly losing steam, investors are searching for the next investment group that may catch fire. And right now, the consensus seems to have settled on technology — the one sector that hasn’t experienced a sustained rally since the bear market of 2000. Wall Street analysts predict that tech profits will grow 17 percent in 2007, according to Thomson Financial. By contrast, earnings among all companies in the S.& P. 500 are expected to jump by a much more modest 7.9 percent, on average.

This month, a survey by Merrill Lynch showed that 41 percent of domestic fund managers are overweighting tech — meaning that they are investing a greater portion of their portfolios in the sector than they normally do. In November, only 23 percent of fund managers were placing larger-than-usual bets on the group. In fact, investment managers are more bullish on tech than they are on any other segment of the economy, according to a survey by the Russell Investment Group.

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