- Donald Trump’s election win boosted tech stocks the next day, with Tesla leading the gains.
- Trump’s past policies reshaped tech; his second term may impact Big Tech similarly.
- Apple faces potential challenges from Trump’s proposed tariffs on China.
It’s rare for the stock market to move so clearly on a single event, and when this happens, it often provides valuable signals about the future.
When Donald Trump decisively won the US election this week, the market took off. Some shares gained more than others, particularly in the tech sector.
In his first term, Trump took drastic steps that changed the tech landscape. This time may be similar.
So what has the stock market told us so far about which Big Tech companies might be winners and losers during a Trump second term?
For clues on this, Business Insider looked at the two-day performance of many of the largest tech companies by market capitalization. Here’s what we found.
Apple at the bottom
Apple is at the bottom here. Investors may be concerned that Trump will impose stricter and broader tariffs on China, where most of Apple’s iPhones are manufactured.
“Apple CEO Tim Cook famously got on very well with Trump and successfully excluded Apple products from Chinese tariffs; a potential blanket tariff, however, which Trump has pledged to implement, would hurt badly,” tech blogger Ben Thompson wrote this week in his newsletter Stratechery.
To be sure, Apple is not a loser here because its stock still rallied as the whole market jumped after the Trump victory. However, among the stocks BI looked at, it has seen the smallest gains over these two days.
TSMC also stands out for its meager performance in this period. The Taiwan-based chipmaker works closely with Apple on iPhone chips. If Trump tariffs send the global supply chain into a spin, that could be bad for TSMC, too.
Tesla on top
Tesla has had the best market performance in this period. CEO Elon Musk gave his full support to Trump’s second election bid.
Trump on Wednesday praised Musk.
“We have a new star, a star is born,” he told boisterous supporters a few hours before the election was called in his favor. “Elon. He is an amazing guy.”
BI reporter Ana Altchek previously wrote about the potential benefits of Musk’s successful support of Trump. While Trump could pull electric vehicle government incentives, Tesla has already reached scale and makes billions of dollars in profit now, giving it a big potential advantage over other US EV makers.
Google gains
Google is somewhat surprising as a big stock gainer in the past two trading days. Trump has criticized the search giant over the years, so his election would seem to be negative for the company.
However, Trump could roll back regulations and rules for businesses, which might benefit Google. Parent Alphabet owns autonomous driving company Waymo, which could get a boost, while even small signs of lighter antitrust enforcement might help the company.
“Self-driving car regulation may be loosened, and investors may hope DOJ pressure could ease,” Stefan Slowinski, a BNP Paribas Exane analyst, wrote in a note to investors after Trump’s win.
Meta overhang?
Meta shares have not performed that well in this period. Trump is not a fan of Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO.
Meta “risks seeing a political overhang emerge,” Slowinski wrote.
“Trump has long expressed personal animosity against Big Tech, which he sees as being in the bag for the Democratic party, and towards Meta in particular, thanks to the money CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated to voting initiatives in 2020 that Trump believes financed Democratic get-out-the-vote operations,” Thompson wrote in Stratechery.
‘Shock absorber for the consumer’
Slowinski highlighted other Big Tech stocks this week in his note to investors.
“Amazon may also now see an overhang as 60% Chinese tariffs, as proposed by the President elect, could pressure margins in North America as Amazon reprises its role as ‘the shock absorber for the consumer’,” the analyst wrote.
As for Microsoft, Slowinski wrote that it “appears the most un-impacted by politics and new policies near term.”