NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2022) Wall Street's Big Tech sector tumbled almost 5% on the week for its biggest weekly loss in almost a year as fears of a faster-than-expected US interest rate hike triggered broad risk aversion across financial markets.
The Nasdaq Composite index, which groups highly-valued tech stocks such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Netflix, closed down Friday's trade down almost 1% at 14,936 - its first decline below 15,000 points since December 20.
For the week, the Big Tech indicator plunged 4.9%, its most for a week since the week ended February 21.
Risk aversion in stocks heightened on Friday after a US jobs report showed the country having reached the Federal Reserve's definition of "maximum employment" with a jobless rate just shy of 4%, despite adding just 199,000 jobs in December versus expectations for 450,000 jobs.
"Wall Street is focusing on the robust prints with wages and the unemployment rate," Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said.
Moya noted that wages in the so-called non-farm payrolls, or NFP, report rose 0.6% in December alone and 4.7% for all of 2021.�
"After the initial dust settled from the NFP report, expectations for a March Fed rate hike rose from around 74% to 80%," he added.
The Federal Reserve has kept US interest rates at near zero since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. It is considering as many as three rate hikes in 2022 to tamp down inflation growing at its fastest pace in 40 years. The first pandemic-era rate hike is due anytime between the end of the first quarter and middle of the year.
Due to its high valuation, Nasdaq always falls the hardest in any stock market rout, though it is also often the biggest winner in a rally. Last year, it ended up 21%.
The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 US stocks, fell 0.4% on the day and 1.9% on the week for its biggest slide since the week to November 21.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which groups blue chips of mostly industrial stocks, fared the best among Wall Street indicators. It ended almost flat on Friday, while dropping just 0.3% on the week.
