[U.S. stock outlook] The four major U.S. stock indexes tumbled on Thursday, the Fed's decision-making focus

Jan 24, 2022

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index recorded their worst weekly performance since the outbreak of the new crown in March 2020, amid the intense drumbeat of interest rate hikes and the lack of solid corporate earnings reports.

Supporting the plate, technology stocks bear the brunt. Investors are bound to be on pins and needles this week for the Fed's decision-making meeting and a super-earnings week including Apple and Microsoft.

The Federal Reserve is expected to remain on hold on Wednesday (early Thursday morning, Taipei time) but will prepare for a rate hike starting in March.

The Dow Jones index fell 450 points on Friday (21st), and the S&P 500 fell by 1.3%, and the Nasdaq fell by 2.7%. In just four days of trading this past week, the Dow Jones fell 4.6%, the S&P 500 fell 5.7% and the Nasdaq fell 7.6%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell by 11.9% in the past week, and TSMC ADR fell by 3% on Friday, and it also fell for four consecutive days, a drop of 11.5%. Intel, which only announced it would spend $20 billion to build a fab in Ohio, closed flat on Friday, down 6.6 percent for the week.

"All risk-premium assets -- cryptocurrencies, highly leveraged, growth stocks -- are hit," said Blakeman, chief investment officer and president of First American Trust. He advised investors to stop buying technology stocks on dips. The second week of the U.S. earnings season has been mixed so far, failing to inspire investors’ risk appetite for the stock market, with Netflix’s stock price crashing 22% just because the outlook for subscribers fell short of expectations. Bitcoin extended losses on Saturday, falling as low as 7.2 percent to as low as $34,042, having retreated more than 50 percent from a new high set in November.