Big tech, amid censorship, earns billions and dominates S&P 500
Big tech represents nearly 20% of the S&P 500.
This week Americans learned how powerful the likes of Google, Twitter and Facebook are when it comes to censoring and controlling content on social media.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 159.13 | +0.86 | +0.54% |
| FB | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| TWTR | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
And as earnings rolled in from this trio, plus Apple and Amazon, investors were reminded just how powerful these big tech giants are.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 169.02 | +2.20 | +1.32% |
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 176.59 | -2.92 | -1.63% |
The combined market value of these five companies, led by Apple which is the world’s most valuable at nearly $2 trillion, is sitting at $5.5 trillion which equates to 19.7% of the S&P 500, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group.
Those combined figures are equal to roughly half of the total world wealth growth last year (in 2019, total world wealth grew by $9.1 trillion for a total of $360.6 trillion). That value could rise following strong revenue numbers reported after the bell on Thursday.
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Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google pulled in a combined $228 billion in quarterly revenue reported after the close of trading Thursday, while Twitter’s haul was just under a billion. The big money may get even bigger for the likes of Amazon.
“Give or take another couple of quarters, this is a company boys and girls that’s gonna be basically making in a year maybe a half-trillion dollars,” said Kingsview Wealth Management CIO Scott Martin during an appearance on FOX Business.
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Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, were grilled by members of the Senate Commerce Committee over censorship.
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Zuckerberg and Dorsey struggled to identify a single liberal individual or organization that has been censored by their platforms.
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In recent weeks, Twitter has come under fire for two high profile examples of censoring. On Thursday it briefly suspended the account of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan after he touted the success of the wall along the southern border.
This followed the locking of the New York Post’s Twitter account following the organization’s reports on Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings and his connection to his father Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden during his tenure as President Obama’s Vice President.