Just two companies help illustrate King Dollar's tyrannical rule in 2022: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). While the Fed's rate hikes have helped stoke fears of a recession for 2023, it has had an even more dramatic (but little-known) impact on investors in another important way: the sharp rise of the U.S. dollar's value. King Dollar's complicated relationship with stocks The Fed's interest rate hikes have done far more than throttle economic activity (a blunt instrument used to try to reduce inflation).