TECH

In a week to forget, tech giants lose nearly $400 billion

A week to forget: in the past five days, the five largest technology companies in the world - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook - have lost no less than $ 392 billion in market value. For most analysts, the move is due to a route correction in the sector for the realization of profits, after extreme appreciation in recent months.
Due to the pandemic and social isolation policies, the already powerful companies with a digital profile have gained even more space in the market. However, the climate of uncertainty due to the American election and the coronavirus lit the yellow light among investors.
The largest company in the world today, valued at more than $ 2 trillion, Apple led the losses, down $ 146 billion. It is more than double the market value of the largest Brazilian company, Vale, which closed the trading session this Friday, 4th, quoted at US $ 60 billion.
Last Thursday, 3, the iPhone maker hit a negative record: it saw its market value drop $ 180 billion, the biggest daily drop in the history of a company on Wall Street. The record belonged to Facebook, which had lost $ 120 billion in a single day in July 2018, amid the Cambridge Analytica case.
Other giants have also had difficult days. The owner of Windows crossed $ 90 billion of its value between the previous Friday's trading session (the 28th) and yesterday's; Jeff Bezos retailer, $ 86 billion. Facebook and Google had smaller losses: $ 33 billion and $ 37 billion, respectively.
The numbers give a dimension of the importance of the so-called big techs in the current market. Together, the devaluations of the five companies are equivalent to practically half of the market value of the companies listed on B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange, today around US $ 800 billion.

Bubble
In the early 2000s, the excitement about the internet led many people to bet on the technology market, which led to the “dot-com” bubble. Twenty years later, some analysts and investors fear that a new frenzy during the pandemic could have an effect similar to the past.
In a report published last Thursday, the consultancy Capital Economics discusses the topic. For the company, the movement of these shares in recent months is partly motivated by their results in the balance sheets, as well as by companies that manage to sell without the need for physical contact with consumers most of the time.
Capital Economics says the appreciation of big techs was higher than the rest of the market, but does not see a bubble burst. For the company, the most likely scenario is that these shares will advance less than the rest of the market with the resumption of the economy in the coming months.
There are also those who claim that what happened in the last week does not change the sector's view in the long run. "Profit-making can cause fear of a bubble and inflated valuations can be an issue, but we still believe that the sector has everything to follow accelerated growth until 2022," wrote analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities in a note.

The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

News of the day