[New York Stocks] Fall on Rate-Hike Concerns; SOXL Plunges 17% as Semiconductor Shares Tumble

[Financial News]  

New York’s stock market fell across the board on the 14th (local time). After surging across the board on the 11th, led by big tech stocks, the market reversed course that day as semiconductor shares were hit hard amid concerns over higher interest rates.
International oil prices climbed above $105 a barrel, while the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes breached 5% during the session, dampening investor sentiment.

Amid rising oil prices, concerns over inflation fueled fears that the Federal Reserve System (Fed) would raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on the 15th and 16th. The concerns rattled financial markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 52,421.20, down 152.09 points, or 0.29%, from the previous session.
The tech-heavy S&P 500 fell 37.00 points, or 0.48%, to 7,619.98, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 146.62 points, or 0.56%, to 26,186.41.
The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, jumped 1.18 points, or 7.45%, to 17.02.

Semiconductor shares were hit hard that day.
NVIDIA fell $7.33, or 3.36%, to $210.96, while Micron plunged $51.23, or 5.25%, to $924.03.
SK hynix’s American depositary receipts also ended their recent rally, plunging $14.44, or 7.60%, to close at $175.63.
NAND flash memory maker SanDisk slid $81.36, or 4.98%, to $1,551.99.
The Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF, a leveraged exchange-traded fund tracking the semiconductor index at three times its daily performance, plunged $20.69, or 16.98%, to $101.13. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX), which serves as SOXL’s benchmark, sank 692.72 points, or 5.86%, to 11,131.28.
Semiconductors are one of the industries most sensitive to interest-rate hikes because they require massive capital investment.

Some big tech stocks, however, posted gains.
Alphabet surged $10.89, or 3.22%, to $349.39, while Apple gained $0.81, or 0.24%, to close at $333.08.
Palantir Technologies jumped $6.08, or 3.64%, to $173.31, while Meta Platforms rose $17.57, or 2.71%, to close at $665.60.
By contrast, Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX both weakened.
Tesla fell $6.47, or 1.77%, to $358.97, while SpaceX slipped $3.06, or 2.02%, to $148.15.

[email protected] Kyung-jae Song Reporter