Strong dollar, economic concerns weighing on tech - Bleakley's Peter Boockvar
Darren415


Bleakley Financial CIO Peter Boockvar said Wednesday that concerns about economic growth and the impact of a strong dollar have weighed on U.S. tech companies lately.
In an interview with CNBC, Boockvar argued that earlier in 2022, the reacceleration of interest rates put pressure on tech stocks, as the Federal Reserve stepped up its rate-hiking campaign in order to fight inflation.
However, recent underperformance from tech has come from worries about the economy and unfavorable currency exchange, Boockvar contended.
"We're realizing that tech is not immune from a global slowdown. Tech is not immune to this short strength in the dollar," he said.
The Bleakley Financial CIO added: "In fact, technology probably has the most sensitivity to strength in the dollar because it's the most international in terms of where they do their business."
Boockvar attributed the dollar strength to "an interest rate differential thing," with the Fed raising rates faster than the other major central banks in the world.
"If the Fed starts to blink, and starts to get worried about over-tightening, that will be enough to slow this rally in the dollar," he said.
To Boockvar's point, many high-profile tech names have fallen sharply in 2022, dramatically underperforming the overall market. Meta Platforms (META), AMD (AMD), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Palantir (PLTR) have all fallen between 31% and 61% since the end of 2021. The S&P 500 has dropped 19% for the year.

Looking at another part of the market hard-hit in 2022, Bitcoin's market cap has dropped back below $1T.