Stock Market Falls as Investors Fret About Tech Growth

Technology stocks have experienced significant volatility as investors fret about the economic outlook, with inflation and high-interest rates squeezing household and business budgets. The strong U.S. dollar also hurts multinational companies’ finances, since they earn less when converting their extensive foreign sales into dollars.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to report its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Jitters about the advertising market, where the company makes most of its money, have hit its shares, which fell 4 percent in early trading. On Monday, Brad Gerstner, the chief executive of the hedge fund Altimeter Capital, published a letter to Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg that urged him to reduce staff by 20 percent and cut spending by $5 billion a year.

Apple, the largest company in the United States by market capitalization, and Amazon will release their earnings reports on Thursday. Both companies are under pressure amid the gloomy mood surrounding tech stocks, with Apple down 1.3 percent and Amazon losing 4.2 percent on Wednesday.

Stephen Gandel contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/business/stock-market-tech.html