In the past few decades, the
United States has seen the amount of goods that it exports to other countries
decline. This is because of the high cost of production, which makes its goods
more expensive than those from China. However, the volume of service exports
has been on the rise. This has partly been driven by technology companies like
Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, and Google. Each of these companies dominate their
industries and are some of the biggest companies in the world.
In recent months, the technology
industry has been under attack by politicians and regulators around the world.
In Europe, companies like Google and Facebook have been fined billions of
dollars. Google has been fined for favoring its platforms in the search engine.
Facebook is being investigated for violating the GDPR rules. Other companies
like Amazon and Apple are also under investigation.
In the United States, the
animosity towards the technology companies has been continuing. This voice of
opposition increased after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Last week, the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined the company $5 billion for exposing this
data. Politicians in the left and right have been critical of the tech
companies. Rightwing politicians like Donald Trump have accused companies like
Facebook and Twitter for being biased against conservatives.
In the ongoing campaign season,
politicians have been presenting their plan for regulating the tech industry.
Elizabeth Warren, the democrat from Massachusetts has said that she will break
down the big technology companies like Amazon and Google. She has been mostly
focused about large tech companies that run marketplaces like Apple, Google,
and Amazon.
Yesterday, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) announced a broad antitrust investigation into online platforms. The
department will look at how these companies got so big and whether they are
‘engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation or
otherwise harmed consumers’. The department said that it will look into
widespread concerns expressed about search, social, and some retail services
online. This resulted in a sharp decline in the stock prices of the big tech
companies.
This decision by the US DOJ came
a few weeks after European regulators signaled that they were looking into
these companies. In a report published in April, the bloc recommended lowering
the bar for companies that are considered dominant players. This will subject
them to stricter antitrust rules. This month, France passed a bill that will
see it collect taxes from technology companies like Facebook.
One way to play the coming
regulations in the tech sector is through the Nasdaq index. While this index
has companies in other sectors, it has a large concentration of technology
companies. Yesterday, the index ended the day at $7965. This is slightly lower
than the record high of $8,006 that was reached a week ago. This price is above
the 21-day and 14-day moving averages. The RSI remains slightly below the
overbought level. With the important tech earnings expected this week, the pair
could see some increased volatity.
The post Nasdaq Index Remains Near All-Time High as DOJ Starts Review on Big Tech appeared first on Forex.Info.