Big Tech may be under siege, but its shares are performing overwhelmingly.
Shares of Facebook Inc. FB,
Google Parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
GOOG,
and Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
closed at a record high on Monday and last month showed a wave of strong growth in U.S. jobs despite a wave of criticism over their excessive impact on the economy and in the lives of Americans. The technically heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
rose 1.7%, pushing other technology names to record highs, including Oracle Corp. ORCL,
HP Inc. HPQ,
and major suppliers of semiconductor equipment.
Facebook climbed 3.4% to $ 308.91 per share as the social networking giant continued to thrive despite lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and 48 state attorneys general claiming competitive business practices as well as warnings from its own financial head of a slowdown in digital advertising. , his lifeblood. The closing price shattered Facebook’s previous record of $ 303.91 on August 26, 2020.
On Saturday, a member of a low-hacking forum published the phone numbers and personal data of 533 million Facebook users, just the latest in a series of controversies for the company with social networks. But it seems small. According to Facebook’s marketing agency Aisle Rocket, Facebook’s advertising prices are 30% higher than their 2020 levels from mid-March.
Alphabet, the subject of a lawsuit as well as two state agents, rose 4% to close at $ 2,218.96. The company benefited in part from its U.S. Supreme Court victory over Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android.
For more: Supreme Court joins Google in $ 8 billion copyright dispute with Oracle
Facebook and Alphabet are facing a slew of lawsuits and legislation to curb their significant influence, but their stockpiles have remained intact.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has become a lightning bolt for data collection, privacy policies and micro-targeting of consumers. Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, and Twitter Inc. TWTR,
CEO Jack Dorsey once again received a tongue-in-cheek from House members about spreading misinformation on their vast digital platforms.
Members of Congress have promised to pass legislation that limits their ability to sharpen rival rivals, as Facebook did with Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as to protect consumers. House Committee Member Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) Introduced a bill to combat the online sales of stolen, counterfeit and dangerous consumer products by requiring verification of third-party sellers in online retail markets.
Microsoft, which scrutinized the antitrust investigation and positioned itself as a White Knight during the Big Tech setback, improved 2.8% to $ 249.07.
The trio of technology giants were not alone. More than a dozen technological stalwarts – including Oracle, HP, Texas Instruments Inc. TXN,
and three major suppliers of chip equipment, Lam Research Corp. LRCX,
Applied Materials Inc. AMAT,
and KLA Corp. KLAC,
– the shares’ share price peaked on Monday, according to Dow Jones market data. Oracle, Texas Instruments, Lam Research, Applied Materials, KLA and HP all closed at record highs.