What happened
Shares of GigaCloud Technology (GCT -2.78%), a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company, fell this week as investors processed the news of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by another 75 basis points.
The latest interest rate hike, and hikes from other central banks around the world, are causing investors to worry about the state of the global economy. As a result, GigaCloud's stock was down by 16.2% this week through early Friday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
So what
This week, the Federal Reserve made its third consecutive 75-basis-point hike to the federal funds rate, and said that it would continue to raise benchmark interest rates in 2023.
Image source: Getty Images.
GigaCloud is based in Hong Kong, but operates in North America, Europe, and Asia, which means that its business can't avoid the impact of rampant inflation in the U.S., Europe, and other countries.
GigaCloud investors appear to be taking a closer look at how rising interest rates could potentially slow down the global economy. While the Fed's goal is to tame inflation, higher rates are also causing consumers to cut back on spending -- which could hurt the company's e-commerce business.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that since GigaCloud went public on Aug. 18, its stock price has been especially volatile. For example, in the first few days of trading, the stock rose by 200%, then rapidly gave back most of those gains.
Now what
When you add the macroeconomic fears that have been moving the whole market recently to the already-volatile state of GigaCloud's shares, it's likely that this tech stock could continue to perform some wild price swings. Long-term investors should probably avoid the stock right now, at least until GigaCloud has reported several quarters' worth of financial data as a publicly traded company.
Investors will begin to get a clearer picture of how the company is doing when it reports its second-quarter financial results on Sept. 30.
