Four Big Tech companies - Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Meta - lost a combined $625 billion in market value this month.
The tech selloff comes against the backdrop of a broader decline in US equities, triggered in part by higher bond yields.Some of the world's biggest companies lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value in August as the US stocks head for its worst month of 2023. The slump contrasts with what's otherwise been a strong year for stocks, especially Big Tech names, thanks to investor excitement over artificial intelligence. The S&P 500 index of US shares is up 14% year-to-date, even after an almost 5% pullback in August.
The decline may be largely down to seasonal trends. History shows that August has been the second-worst month of the year for stocks for more than three decades – and it's especially poor in the year before a presidential election,Higher interest rates and surging bond yields have also weighed on equities, chipping away at the relative attractiveness of the asset class.