Tech-heavy NASDAQ index has tanked 18.88% so far this year and the big-name technology stocks have been moving southward owing to various headwinds. Last week was no different with Facebook, Apple, Google and other FAANGM stocks finishing in the red. Tech stocks have been gearing up for interest rate hikes across the globe which is expected to weigh down on new-age internet companies. US Federal Reserve will meet later this week and is expected to kick-start the interest rate hike cycle, despite the escalating geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine and rising crude oil prices.

FAANGM stocks continue to tumble

The Facebook stock price closed the previous week down 6.2% at $187.61 per share. With the most recent fall in the stock price, Facebook is now down 44.5% so far in 2022. The company has lost its position among the top 10 most valuable companies listed in the US as the stock continues to tumble. Reports in the US say that the company is expecting all employees to be back in the office by the end of March, however, Meta, Facebook’s parent, will not give employees the perks it used to before. 

Apple stock fell 5.17% last week and closed on Friday at $154.73. So far this year the stock has tumbled 15%. The stock wasn’t saved even after the brand new launches. According to Barron’s, Norway’s central bank sold Apple shares recently. Amazon stock was, however, among the outperformers. Jeff Bezos’ company shares only fell 0.08% last week to settle at $2,910 per share. The company announced a 20 to 1 stock split last week. 

Netflix’s share price fell 5.9% last week to end at $340.32 per share. Google, the internet behemoth was also down in red but fared better than most. The stock fell 1.5% to trade at $2,597 per share. Microsoft’s share price fell more than 3% and closed on Friday at $280 per share. So far this year the stock is down 16%.

Rate hike cycle to kickstart

This week tech stocks will be keenly watching the US Federal Reserve’s meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 16. While geopolitical tensions are ripe and the US is going all guns blazing with sanctions of Russia, the Federal Reserve is still expected to go for a hike in rates to tackle inflation that is at a 40-year high. “… if we look at what the Fed chair, Powell said recently, he sort of backs now at a 25 basis point hike in the March meeting next week, and also a subsequent series of hikes,” said Thomas Verbraken from MSCI’s solutions research team last week. Analysts at ING Group are also looking forward to a 25 basis point hike, with close to 6 rate hikes of a total of 160 basis points for the entire year.