LONDON, Feb 1 Reuters The end of the easycash era is over and its impact yet to be felt on world markets, hopeful that the pain of aggressive rate hikes and high inflation has passed.

U.S. and UK central banks are unwinding stimulus further by offloading bonds they hold, and the European Central Bank will join them soon. Nomura estimates the balance sheets of the three banks will shrink by 3 trillion this year.

Tech stocks and crypto currencies look vulnerable. They are among risky assets that soared as cash pumped out by central banks fighting weak inflation in recent years searched for a home.

When you have unprecedented monetary tightening, the likelihood is that you get issues that are uncovered that might be something hidden such as liquidity or something more obvious like pressures in the housing market, said Zurich Insurance Group chief market strategist Guy Miller.

We look at some potential pressure points.

1 DARLINGS NO MORE

Once darlings of the easycash era, tech stocks are being shunned by many investors even after a January bounce as higher rates make it more expensive to take punts on the potential earnings growth of early stage or speculative businesses.

When economic uncertainty is high, investors often look for reliable returns from dividends to safeguard portfolios. That makes the likes of tech stalwarts such as Apple, whose shares trade on a dividend yield of less than 1, look vulnerable.

We39;re at a stage where very elevated valuations in…