Central-bank monetary tightening rattles tech stocks
Central banks are turning more hawkish on raising interest rates - and tech stocks don't like it.

Global markets caught a bad case of the January blues. America’s S&P 500 ended last month down more than 5%, its worst monthly performance since March 2020 and its worst start to a year since 2009. Big tech firms led the rout, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling almost 9%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 6.2%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 retreated 3.9% in January for its worst month since October 2020. The FTSE 100 ended the month up 1.1%, but the more domestically focused FTSE 250 finished down 6.6%.
The key theme so far this year has been “the hawkish pivot by multiple central banks”, say Henry Allen and Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank. On 31 December, interest-rate markets were pricing in about three increases by the US Federal Reserve this year. By the end of January, that number had risen to almost five. Money looks set to get tighter “much earlier than anticipated”.
That’s a headwind for fast-growing technology stocks in particular, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. Many investors are betting that firms with “innovative intellectual property” or dominant market positions but few or no profits so far can reap big rewards in the future. But higher interest rates make “expected profits in five, ten or fifteen years look dramatically less appealing than hard profits today”. With rates “so close to zero”, even “modest rises” have a huge impact.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
This month’s market “spasms” show that investors are having a difficult time coming “to terms with the end of the era of free money”, says The Economist. Some thought it would “pretty much last forever”. Hence corporations and housebuyers binged on debt during the pandemic, while government borrowing soared. We are about to find out just how vulnerable the world economy is to higher debt servicing costs.
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019.
Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere.
He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful.
Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.
-
How does the Lifetime ISA work? Key LISA rules
What is a Lifetime ISA (LISA) and how much could the government bonus boost your savings by? We look at the perks and the pitfalls.
-
AJ Bell: a fine British fintech going cheap
Opinion Don’t overlook investment platform AJ Bell, a significantly undervalued British business with an excellent financial base
-
Investors can buy into tomorrow’s top global technology stocks today
Opinion Anthony Ginsberg, manager of HAN-GINS Tech Megatrend Equal Weight UCITS ETF, highlights three technology stocks as he tells us where he'd put his money
-
Halma reaches new all-time high
Profits at Halma, one of Britain’s best blue chips, have hit a new record. But could US tariffs now cloud the outlook?
-
Spectra Systems: a 'boffin-led' tech stock with business acumen
Opinion Patient investors will get paid well as they wait for success from Spectra Systems, a promising Aim stock, says Jamie Ward
-
The next phase of the AI boom
The technology is about to become far more widespread, says Dan McEvoy. Here’s how to profit
-
The strange world of quantum computing
If we can harness the potential of quantum physics, modern computers may come to seem like plodding calculators in comparison with the machines of the future
-
'Technology will determine tomorrow’s top stocks in emerging markets'
Opinion John Citron, investment manager of the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust, tells us where he’d put his money
-
Should you limit exposure to US tech stocks?
An end to the AI boom would shake both US funds and global trackers. Here’s one way to trim exposure to US tech stocks
-
No need to run from the robots: Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu talks to MoneyWeek
Interview Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Prize winner and professor at MIT tells Matthew Partridge why the gains from AI have been overhyped