“Once Wall Street’s stars, Big Tech falls back to Earth”

“…The tech stocks in the S&P 500 are down 19.8% for the year through Tuesday, while communications services stocks in the index tumbled even more, 24.1%. The rest of the S&P 500 fell only 6.9%.

Tech-oriented stocks have struggled in large part because interest rates have shot to their highest level in years. The 10-year Treasury yield, for example, topped 2.90% recently after starting the year at 1.51%, though it’s receded in recent days. Yields have surged as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise short-term rates sharply to stamp out high inflation. It’s also planning other moves to push longer-term rates upward.

Higher interest rates are a drag on all kinds of investments. Now that a 10-year Treasury is close to offering a real return for the first time since the pandemic, after taking inflation into account, investors can make money by parking in safe bonds. That makes them less willing to pay high prices for riskier investments. High-growth, tech-oriented stocks are now taking the hardest hits because their prices earlier soared the highest…”

https://apnews.com/article/business-economy-ea18403e71a0b45a5fdbd22e3c32491f