Tech stocks have had a rough month since the election of Donald Trump to be next President. But some commentators think there is a silver lining.
In the week following the Nov 8 polls, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares fell from $787.75 on polling day to $719.07, a decline of nearly 9%. They bounced back the following week when IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty wrote a letter pleading with Trump not to insulate himself with old economy policies but have since then fallen again.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a close carbon copy, hitting a trough on Nov. 14 just like Amazon, then gaining, and on Thursday falling to a dollar below the Nov. 8 level at $59.
It may start to sound repetitive, but that also is what happened to Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) as well as Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and countless others.
Well, all except IBM (NYSE:IBM) whose shares have had a jagged course but upwards, no decline. IBM shares closed Nov 8 at 155.17, were three dollars higher in the tech trough of Nov 14, and reached $164.52 on Monday. Even on Thursday the shares although down nearly 2% on the day were at $159.31 – more than four dollars above polling day.
IT companies have been alarmed by the advance of Trump, who has favoured infrastructure deals and other simpler world projects over complicated techs which he suspects of having been pro-Democrat and having tried to undermine his electoral campaign.
How much of that is paranoia might not matter in the longer. According to a growing group of commentators Trump might be good for tech stocks. You read it right.
The long-entrenched CEO of Nasdaq, Robert Greifeld, this week gave an interview to Bloomberg TV in which he argued that Trump could be good news for tech stocks and that banks may not get a wholesale scrappage of Dodd-Frank and other financial regulations, but rather a “refinement”.
There is a shortage of workers of in the tech sector. Greifeld said he believes that thousands of jobs in Silicon Valley which cannot be filled by qualified Americans will result in Trump making it easier for them to be filled with foreign skilled labour.
Of course, how that helps make Americans Great Again, not just America, remains to be seen.