Heard on the Street: Why Big Tech's Trump Bump Is Skipping Apple, Meta -- WSJ

Dow Jones11-07

By Dan Gallagher

Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook have some work to do.

The market euphoria that greeted Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election on Wednesday had an uneven impact on megacap tech stocks. Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet all matched or outpaced the S&P 500's 2% lift in morning trades. Apple and Meta Platforms were notable laggards, with Apple up only a fraction while Facebook's parent company slipped by 1%.

There are reasons. Tech stocks in general rose on the assumption that a second Trump administration will bring lower taxes and a lighter regulatory touch-including a potential U-turn in the anti-merger stance of the Federal Trade Commission.

But Trump has also promised to significantly boost tariffs on goods from China -which would be bad news for Apple considering the vast bulk of its products are still made there. Much may depend on how well Apple CEO Tim Cook has kept up the relationship built during Trump's first term, where he earned the affectionate nickname of "Tim Apple" from the 45th president.

Relationships will also be important for Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire. Trump labeled Facebook as an "enemy of the people" early on the campaign trail, though he seems to have moderated that stance as Zuckerberg has shifted his own tone about how the company should be involved in politics.

A second Trump presidency also brings an uncertain future for the effort to ban TikTok, which has been seen as a positive for U.S.-based social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Trump himself reversed his position on such a ban, which is currently working its way through courts. Snapchat parent Snap saw its shares slide more than 3% on Wednesday.

This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 06, 2024 11:30 ET (16:30 GMT)

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Heard on the Street: Why Big Tech's Trump Bump Is Skipping Apple, Meta -- WSJ

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