1. Coinbase
A sell-off in crypto assets has triggered a huge drop in the market value of the largest US cryptocurrency exchange in 2022.

Late on July 10, Coinbase reported a first-quarter loss and 27% lower revenue than a year ago, missing Wall Street’s forecasts. The following day, Coinbase shares plummeted more than 25% to hit their lowest level ever. Its shares lost more than half their value in that week alone — from $130.15 on July 4 to $53.72 on July 11, according to a report by Forbes.

The stock has recovered slightly since then but is still at $69.70, down almost 72% in 2022, and 81.1% down from its all-time high of $368.90 in November 2021.

Founder Brian Armstrong, who had a personal fortune of $13.7 billion in November and about $8 billion at the end of March, is now worth under $3 billion.

2. Snap Inc.
In June, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel warned that “the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated further and faster” than it anticipated in its earnings guidance.

In the filing, Snap said it expected revenues and adjusted earnings to fall “below the low end” of its guidance range in the second quarter of 2022.

On July 12, Snap’s shares plunged 43%, their biggest intraday decline ever, falling below the 2017 IPO price of $17. The sell-off erased almost $16 billion in market value and dragged down Snap’s larger peers, including Meta, Alphabet, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Social media stocks lost more than $135 billion in market value that day, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped about 2.4% to 11,264.45.

3. Netflix
Shares of Netflix tumbled 39% on April 20 after it reported a sharp decline in its subscriber base. The stock fell as low as $212.51 in New York, down 64% this year, making it the worst-performing stock on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq this year.

The streaming service shocked Wall Street, saying it lost 200,000 customers in the first quarter – the first time it has shed subscribers since 2011. It also projected it would lose another two million customers in the second quarter.

In its earnings report, the company said the war in Ukraine and the decision to raise its prices in the US had hit subscriber numbers. Pulling out of Russia alone had cost it 700,000 members, Netflix said.

About a month later the company laid off 150 employees – about 2% of its North American workforce – mainly in its office in California. It said the job cuts were due to a drop in revenue.

Though the stock has fallen further and is now down almost 68%, it has been dethroned by Coinbase and Snap as the biggest loser of 2022.

4. Sea Ltd
On February 16, Sea Ltd. lost more than $16 billion of value after its shares plummeted 18% — their biggest one-day drop – on reports that India had abruptly banned its most popular mobile gaming title, Garena Free Fire, along with 53 other apps linked to China.

India has banned hundreds of Chinese apps over the past two years, but the inclusion of Sea’s app took everyone, including the company, by surprise. While Sea is based in Singapore, its founders are Chinese-born. The company is also backed by the Chinese technology and entertainment firm Tencent.

Shares of Sea plunged another 13% in US trading on March 1, after the company reported an earnings miss in its fourth-quarter data, wiping out $1.1 billion of chairman Forrest Li’s net worth.

On May 18, Sea’s shares jumped 14% after its first-quarter revenue beat analysts’ expectations, but the stock is still down more than 64% this year.

5. Meta
Shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms crashed more than 25% on February 3, the biggest single-day slide in market value for a US company, after the social media giant issued a dismal forecast, blaming Apple’s privacy changes and increased competition.

The huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta’s market capitalization and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower.

It marked the company’s worst one-day loss since its Wall Street debut in 2012.

Meta’s rallied on April 28 posted its slowest revenue growth in years and narrowly missed analysts’ predictions for daily and monthly active Facebook users. Its profits, while ahead of expectations, were down 21% from the same period a year ago. Amid the broader downturn, weary investors found something to celebrate after this decidedly mixed news, sending Meta’s shares soaring 18% in after-hours trading.

Meta’s shares are still down 43.4% this year – a stunning number for a company with a market cap of around $935 billion on January 1.

The post Top 5 most affected tech companies in 2022 appeared first on International Finance.

A recession seems inevitable, considering food and fuel prices are surging. April’s consumer prices were 8.3% higher than in 2021. Annual inflation is 6.2%, excluding food and fuel prices. War in Europe and China’s rampant lockdowns have disrupted global supply chains and created scarcity and price rises. Meanwhile, the American labour market is better than before, with two new jobs opening for every unemployed individual. It hasn’t been this good since the 1950s. Goldman Sachs’ reported annual wage growth of 5.5% is also alarming companies that can’t afford it unless they pass those prices onto their consumers.

The Fed is trying to douse the fire by aggressively hiking interest rates to more than 2.5% by 2023. They hope this will bring inflation down by 2%. However, economists speculate that hiking interest rates will more often shrink the economy. The Fed has raised interests seven times since 1955, and after six of them, a recession followed. The only exception was the 1990s, as the labour market was balanced and inflation was low.

The coming recession is likely mild because consumers are still flush with cash from the pandemic stimulus, and companies are faring well. The housing prices are not skyrocketing as in the 2000s, and banks look healthy. And inflation hasn’t run wild for years like in the 80s. It is only a year above target.

However, American markets have fallen by 15%, and Wall Street is distressed. It is difficult to say how it will react to a Fed-induced recession. To make things worse, the Fed had printed trillions of dollars during the pandemic, which is partly driving inflation now.

Wall Street was bailed out once in 2009. It will be difficult for America to offer another bail-out package without hurting the rest of the economy.

All this, combined with hyper-partisan politics, creates a recipe for disaster. A recession would arrive sometime around 2024 and would be the talking point of the next election. It may ignite the fires of populism and protectionism, ensuring the return of Donald Trump.

The last three recessions aligned with US elections and saw the ruling party lose power.

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