Top brass from Twitter and Facebook will face off with members of Congress Wednesday.
1.Tech executives come to Washington: Top brass from Twitter and Facebook will face off with members of Congress Wednesday.
Twitter ( TWTR) chief Jack Dorsey and Facebook ( FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will both head for Capitol Hill to be grilled about how social networks police content on their platforms.
There are some thorny issues at play — but investors should expect a lot of bluster and little that could result in lasting damage to tech companies.
“Investors have become more immune to this news” since Facebook endured a public beating over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives. “I think investors are expecting the companies to continue to reiterate their messages and communications from the last few months. This is not a new issue.”
So lawmakers will be looking for a better understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes at major social media companies and how they’re responding to criticism of fake news, state-sponsored misinformation, bias and harassment on their platforms.
The hearing comes as tech giants have been heavily scrutinized for letting Russian trolls spread misinformation to influence US elections. Some Republicans, including the president, have also accused social media platforms of harboring a liberal bias and attempting to silence conservative voices.
Dorsey and Sandberg will testify Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee at 9:30 a.m. ET. Google was invited to that session as well, but lawmakers have been displeased with their offer to send a low-level executive.
Michael Pachter, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush, said it’s a bad look for Google to be a no-show.
Although he doesn’t expect a huge swing in Google’s stock, Pachter added that he thinks “investors expect their CEOs to have respect for their institutions.”
Dorsey and Twitter will be the focus of a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee at 1:30 pm ET Wednesday. Republican chairman Greg Walden said in a statement he wants “to better understand the decisions Twitter makes about content and the company’s process to prevent mistakes and undue bias.”
2. Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs: President Donald Trump is reportedly ready to move ahead with a plan to slam China with hefty tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods as soon as the public comment period ends on Thursday. Trump has already imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods — and Beijing has retaliated in kind.
China has pledged to push back against the United States if it moves forward with the new tariffs, though the country is running out of goods to target. Even so, it’s possible China could choose to fight back by devaluing its currency, which would make Chinese products more competitive around the globe.
3. Trillion dollar club: Amazon is nearing the $1 trillion market cap mark. To do that, the stock price must reach $2,050.27 per share. It would become the second American company to cross that threshold. Apple crossed the $1 trillion threshold on August 2.
4. Jobs report: The US Labor Department will release its monthly employment data Friday. Investors will be looking for a round of solid job gains and steady wage growth. Growth slowed a bit last month. Employers added 156,000 positions to their payrolls and the unemployment rate crept up to 4.4%.
5. Kickoff: The NFL kicks off its 2018 season on Thursday with the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles in a primetime match-up on NBC. Disney ( DIS), Fox ( FOX), CBS ( CBS), Comcast ( CMCSA) and Amazon have made substantial investments in the NFL broadcasting rights, so investors will be attuned to this season’s ratings. Viewers have watched less football over the past couple years, and NFL ratings have continued to decline.
6. Back to work: Trading volume has been low, which is no surprise as it’s the end of summer. But with vacations coming to an end, the real test for the market might be when traders turn their full focus back on Wall Street. Markets could react more meaningfully to trade deals, interest rate decisions from the Fed and corporate earnings.
7. Coming this week:
Monday — US markets closed for Labor Day
Tuesday — Restoration Hardware ( RH) earnings
Wednesday — DocuSign ( DOCU) and Vera Bradley ( VRA) earnings; Twitter and Facebook executives testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee
Thursday — Barnes and Noble ( BKS), Broadcom ( AVGO) and GameStop ( GME) earnings; NFL regular season begins
Friday — Jobs report
