S&P 500 slips as tech leads losses on final day of trade for 2022

By Yasin Ebrahim 

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 fell sharply Friday, as the relief rally in tech from a day earlier run out of steam, putting stocks on course for its biggest yearly loss since the 2008 financial crisis.

The S&P 500 fell 1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9% or 296 points, the Nasdaq Composite was down 1%.

Stocks started the final day of trade on the backfoot as tech selling resumed following a reprieve a day earlier.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell more than 1%.

Semiconductor stocks continued to slide as investors fret about falling demand for chips amid a softer global economic backdrop.

“We believe investor's concern for some time with semiconductors has been that enterprise demand will follow consumer requirements in softening,” Wedbush said. “DigiTimes suggests indeed this future is coming to fruition with hyperscale and telcos cutting back data center expansion plans.”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM), Wolfspeed (NYSE:WOLF), and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) were down more than 2%, with latter also weighed down by downgrade from Argus.

Argus downgraded Micron to 'hold' from 'buy', citing the potential for wider losses in upcoming quarters.

The 30% loss in tech for the year has the Federal Reserve’s fingerprints all over it. The U.S. central bank embarked on the fastest pace of rate hikes seen in four decades, pushing Treasury yields higher, and hurting valuations of pricier sectors of the market including tech.

Electric vehicle makers were also in the spotlight as Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA) fell 10% on plans to raise funds by selling $125 million of senior convertible bonds. China-based EV maker Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) rose more than 3% as it forecast more than 20,000 deliveries this month, up from the 14,087 delivered in December of 2021.

Energy was the only sector in the green, trading marginally above the flatline, underpinned by a 2% rise in oil prices.

In deal news, Rogers Communications (NYSE:RCI) received the green light to proceed with its $26B acquisition of rival telecom company Shaw Communications (TSX:SJRb) after Canada's antitrust tribunal approved the deal.