AAPL saw its share price fall more than three dollars yesterday, a drop of 2.79%, falling another 1.16% in after-market trading. Other tech firms suffered similar falls, including Microsoft down 2.44%, Google 2.9%, Amazon 3.82% and Twitter 3.79%. The Nasdaq as a whole fell 70 points, 1.62% down. That’s against a broader market rise after the election.
Analysts say that investors are fearful of three things under a Trump presidency. First, higher inflation, causing costs to rise and reducing the spending power of consumers. Second, president-elect Trump has repeatedly vowed to reverse trade agreements, which risk the imposition of tariffs that could hit both imports and exports. Third, tighter immigration restrictions in a sector which relies on a high proportion of foreign engineers.
Business Insider notes the divergence in performance between the Dow and the tech-focused Nasdaq indices yesterday.
Trump specifically targeted Apple in some of his campaign messages, stating in January that he was ‘gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.’ He gave no indication of how this might be achieved, and it’s likely that this was simply election rhetoric that will quickly be forgotten when he enters office.
Not everyone is as concerned about the impact on the tech sector of a Trump presidency. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, one of the rare tech names to support Trump, told the WSJ that he thinks a Trump administration won’t ‘have that big an impact right away.’ It is, however, being reported that Thiel may be joining Trump’s transition team despite previously stating that he had no intention of doing so.
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