Big Tech may be under attack, but stocks are outperforming.
Shares of Facebook Inc. FB,
Google parent company Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
GOOG,
and Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
closed at record highs on Monday and saw a wave of strong job growth in the US last month despite a wave of criticism over their inordinate impact on the economy and in the lives of Americans. The technically demanding Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
Up 1.7%, propelling other tech names to record highs, including Oracle Corp. ORCL,
HP Inc. HPQ,
and major suppliers of semiconductor equipment.
Facebook climbed 3.4% to $ 308.91 a share as the social networking giant continued to thrive despite lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and 48 public attorneys general claiming to have anti-competitive business practices, as well as warnings from its own chief financial officer of a slowdown of digital ads are lifeblood. The closing price shattered Facebook’s previous record of $ 303.91 on August 26, 2020.
On Saturday, a member of a low-level hacking forum published the phone numbers and personal information of 533 million Facebook users, the latest in a series of controversies for the social networking company. But it doesn’t seem to matter. According to research by marketing agency Aisle Rocket, Facebook ad prices have increased 30% from mid-March compared to 2020.
Alphabet, the subject of a Justice Department lawsuit and two AG state lawsuits, was up 4% to close at $ 2,218.96. The company benefited in part from the US Supreme Court victory over Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android.
For more, the Supreme Court sided with Google in an $ 8 billion copyright dispute with Oracle
Facebook and Alphabet are facing a slew of lawsuits and legislation to curb their significant influence, but their inventory paths have remained intact.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has become the technical lightning rod for consumer data collection practices, privacy policies and microtargeting. Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter Inc. TWTR,
CEO Jack Dorsey each received a tongue whip from House members about the spread of disinformation on their sprawling digital platforms.
Members of Congress have vowed to pass legislation that limits their ability to pick up potential competitors, as Facebook did with Instagram and WhatsApp, and protects consumers. House Commissioner Jan Schakelowsky (D., Ill.) Has introduced a bill to combat the online sale of stolen, counterfeit and dangerous consumer products by requiring verification of third party sellers in online retail markets.
Microsoft, which bypassed antitrust investigations and positioned itself as a White Knight in the Big Tech response, improved 2.8% to $ 249.07.
The trio of tech giants were not alone. More than a dozen technical stalwarts – including Oracle, HP, Texas Instruments Inc. TXN,
and three major chip equipment suppliers, Lam Research Corp. LRCX,
Applied Materials Inc. AMAT,
and KLA Corp. KLAC,
– hit the intraday high of the stock price on Monday, according to market research by Dow Jones. Oracle, Texas Instruments, Lam Research, Applied Materials, KLA and HP all closed at record highs.