Shares of Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc and other technology companies sank on Thursday as Wall Street sold them to pay for infrastructure names that could benefit from potential economic stimulus spending by US President-elect Donald Trump. Before his unexpected victory in Tuesday’s election, investors had worried about uncertainty that a Trump presidency might create, but traders in the past two days have been looking to business sectors that might stand to benefit.
Amazon fell 4.7 per cent to its lowest level since July, while Alphabet dropped 2.3 per cent. Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp lost about 2.7 per cent each. “I don’t think there’s anything in the new administration that’s going to be negative for tech stocks,” said Michael Yoshikami, head of Destination Wealth Management. “It’s just that other things are more in demand, and so there’s a rotation.”
In his acceptance speech, Trump reiterated his commitment to increased infrastructure spending, while striking a conciliatory note and avoiding references to controversial campaign promises.
The S&P 500 technology index dropped 2 per cent on Thursday and was on track for its steepest daily decline in two months, while the materials index rose 1.27 percent. The industrial index jumped 2.1 per cent, helped by a 3.8 percent surge in Caterpillar Inc. Banks also rallied on expectations that Trump would roll back financial regulation.
The technology sector recently traded at about 16.2 times expected earnings, in line with the S&P 500, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. The materials sector traded near 15.9 times expected earnings. Thursday’s loss leaves Apple, which is struggling with lackluster iPhones sales, up 1.9 per cent in 2016, lagging the S&P 500’s 6 per cent rise.
