Who brought the global technology stocks "Black Friday" from Apple, Japan to the Middle East?

At the beginning of the new year, global technology stocks collectively fell.

In the overnight US stock market, the technology-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust fell by about 1.6%, marking the largest decline in over two months.

In the Asian stock market, the Hang Seng Technology Index opened lower today and fell by over 2% by midday. Among them, JD Health, NIO, JD.com, Bilibili, SENSETIME-W, XPeng, Xiaomi, and other stocks have all declined.

The South Korean Kospi Index fell by 2%, with chip stocks leading the decline, dragged down by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Just before most US stock indices experienced a "black opening" at the beginning of the new year, global stock markets rebounded strongly on expectations of interest rate cuts. The S&P 500 Index, dominated by blue-chip stocks, had a cumulative increase of nearly 25% last year, approaching a historical high.

Apple suffers its worst decline in five months

Overnight, Apple opened down nearly 2.8%, and at one point during midday, it fell to 4.5%, closing with a decline of 3.6%, marking its largest decline since August 4, 2023.

Yesterday, Apple was downgraded by Barclays for the first time since 2019, with a slight reduction in the target price to $160, which means that Barclays expects Apple's stock price to decline by 17% in the next year compared to the previous trading day.

In addition, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, and NVIDIA all followed the decline. Among them, Tesla performed the best among the "Big Seven" technology stocks due to its quarterly delivery volume exceeding expectations.

Among the Nasdaq component stocks, Advanced Micro Devices led the decline with a 6.5% drop, and chip stocks including Intel and ASML also suffered heavy losses.

Jim Cramer, a well-known US financial commentator, believes that Wall Street is currently experiencing "sector rotation" as some investors have doubts about the rise of the "Big Seven" technology stocks and instead buy low-priced stocks in the food and pharmaceutical sectors.However, Cramer remains optimistic about technology stocks. He believes that:

"People will still profit from the best stocks, which are the stocks that define this market - the 'Fabulous Seven' of US stocks and high-valued software stocks."

The recent earthquake in Japan and the ongoing tensions in the Middle East have pushed up oil prices. Against the backdrop of investors reducing their bets on major central bank interest rate cuts this year, some on Wall Street believe that the earthquake on January 1st on the Noto Peninsula in Japan has triggered investors' safe-haven demand. Combined with the continued tension in the Middle East and heightened concerns about inflation, these factors may have collectively dragged down the performance of US stocks.

However, analysts at Bespoke stated that these factors "cannot explain such a large decline in the morning market situation." They believe that:

"The more likely culprit is a round of profit-taking after the significant rise in the stock market in 2023."

International crude oil prices fell during Tuesday's overnight trading session. Both US oil and Brent oil hit intraday highs before continuing to fall, eventually closing at a two-week low. This may also reflect the limited impact of the earthquake in Japan and geopolitical tensions on oil prices.

Cramer believes that the recent market volatility is temporary:

"At the beginning of the year, there is often a lot of 'repositioning'. Once companies announce their earnings, investors may start buying back stocks that performed well in December."