Water stocks and QQQ have had a monthly correlation of close to -0.9 in 2025. (Negative 1 would mean they were perfectly inversely correlated). For reference, gold is at -0.37 and long term treasuries are at -0.15.
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/asset-correlations?s=y&sl=0befUbQpqbunLvxkzVpS6
I went back to check price data for the year 2000 dotcom crash. From March 2000 to March 2001, the NASDAQ was down 59.8%. during the same 1 year period York Water was up 72% and California water was up 25.4%. (data for AWK doesn't go back that far).
My point is: maybe water stocks are a better hedge against a tech downturn than gold or treasuries?