{"id":445986,"date":"2020-11-05T07:59:58","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=445986"},"modified":"2020-11-05T07:59:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:59:58","slug":"facebook-leads-big-tech-stock-jump-on-gridlock-us-election-bet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/445986\/facebook-leads-big-tech-stock-jump-on-gridlock-us-election-bet\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook leads big tech stock jump on gridlock US election bet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big technology stocks surged on Wednesday as investors bet that likely Republican control of the Senate could create gridlock in Congress, limiting new legislation that may have weighed on the industry.<\/p>\n

Facebook Inc. jumped more than 8%, the biggest intraday gain since late August. Google parent Alphabet Inc. climbed over 6%, while Amazon.com Inc. rose 5.8% and Apple Inc. added 4%.<\/p>\n

Democratic prospects of taking control of the Senate\u00a0faded on Wednesday\u00a0after several vulnerable Republican incumbents fought off well-financed Democratic challengers. That helped ease concerns about big changes to U.S. antitrust laws targeting the largest internet platforms.<\/p>\n

“We now see a material reduction in the possibility of a meaningful overhaul to existing antitrust law,” Evercore ISI analysts wrote in a research note on Wednesday. Facebook and Alphabet are “major winners on this front,” followed by Amazon, they said.<\/p>\n

Before Election Day, the tech industry was facing\u00a0major regulatory threats. The Justice Department filed a landmark monopoly suit against Google and legislation was being prepared based on a recent House report alleging wide-ranging antitrust violations by Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.<\/p>\n

While the election results are still unknown, a \u201cBlue wave\u201d now looks unlikely, reducing the chances that the Senate will pass any major new laws attacking the tech industry.<\/p>\n

\u201dWithout a massive change in the House and Senate, we won\u2019t see significant change,\u201d said Neil Campling, head of TMT research at Mirabaud Securities Ltd. “The status quo is good for tech.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Market\/Nasdaq is betting that whatever happens in the Presidential election the Senate will stay in the Republican majority,\u201d Dan Morgan, a senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company, wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

“A Democrat-controlled Senate would be more likely to create overhauls and fines on Tech giants. Whereby, a Republican-controlled Senate (which seems to be most likely) would have a more laissez-faire stance.”<\/p>\n

Morgan also said that a Republican-controlled Senate would reduce the chance of an increase in capital gains taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA massive capital gains increase is not going to get through a Republican-controlled Senate,\u201d he said. This has a \u201cbig positive impact\u201d on large tech stocks that have generated huge profits for shareholders in recent years, he added.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the election, Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai wrote a memo to employees thanking them and urging them to stay focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what tomorrow brings, Google\u2019s work continues,\u201d Pichai said. \u201cRecognizing the importance of good public policy, we will keep engaging with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: How much money developers can expect to earn in South Africa right now: Cape Town vs Joburg vs Pretoria<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big technology stocks surged on Wednesday as investors bet that likely Republican control of the Senate could create gridlock in Congress, limiting new legislation that may have weighed on the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":445992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[45,26],"class_list":["post-445986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-facebook","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445996,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445986\/revisions\/445996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}