Why Qualcomm Shares Are Falling

Shares of several companies in the broader tech sector, including Qualcomm Inc QCOM, are trading lower Thursday afternoon as investors weigh Wednesday's Fed announcements and assess the tapering outlook.

The Federal Reserve announced that it will stop buying bonds about three months earlier than initially planned. The Fed now plans to trim its monthly Treasury and mortgage-backed security purchases by $30 billion a month starting next month. The new pace is expected to put an end to bond buying by March.

The Fed also announced that it would leave interest rates unchanged at near-zero percent. The announcement paves the way for three interest rate hikes by the end of 2022, which could weigh on tech and growth stocks.

Qualcomm develops and licenses wireless technology and designs chips for smartphones. The company's key patents revolve around CDMA and OFDMA technologies, which are standards in wireless communications.

See Also: Why Apple Shares Are Falling

QCOM Price Action: Qualcomm has traded as high as $191.30 and as low as $122.16 over a 52-week period.

The stock was down 6.13% at $177.73 at time of publication.

Photo: courtesy of Qualcomm.