RV Blog Harrison: Big Tech Is In For A Reckoning

Harrison: Big Tech Is In For A Reckoning

Your Real Vision Daily Briefing for December 11, 2020

Ed Harrison welcomes Ash Bennington to discuss water futures, “bubblicious” market froth, and potential anti-competitive behavior by Big Tech.

  • As we go into 2021, the potential for Big Tech to underperform the market is high due to increasing scrutiny of anti-competitive practices amid the Facebook antitrust lawsuit.
  • The current IPO frenzy bears a resemblance to the market conditions that preceded the dot com bubble in the 1990s.
  • The big question for markets and the economy going forward is how market froth, the worsening pandemic, and a dysfunctional Congress will play out in the coming weeks.

GET REAL VISION'S FREE DAILY BRIEFING DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX EVERY DAY AFTER MARKETS CLOSE

Get the latest information as we analyze the next phase of our new global economy and discuss what we think is to come.

Large cap tech companies are viewed as being rock solid, especially as they have benefitted from the pandemic, but the tech space is about to face challenges from both sides of the political spectrum over their anti-competitive practices, Ed Harrison told Real Vision during today’s Daily Briefing.

Harrison said he thinks that the Facebook antitrust case is just the beginning and there will be more scrutiny to come in the space. The big issue for investors is what this will mean going forward. As we go into 2021, Harrison believes the potential for these companies to underperform the market—or drag down the market overall—is high.

He also discussed the fears of a bubble forming given the recent IPOs of DoorDash and Airbnb. Harrison said he believes these fears are for good reason, noting not just that these two particular companies lie at opposite ends of the stay-at-home / post-vaccine spectrum yet are experiencing the same speculative fervor, but also that their market caps have no financial justification relative to other companies.

“This whole IPO frenzy is very scary and it feels like the 1990s,” he said. “We’ve finally entered the phase where we can say almost objectively this is a bubble and there are bad things happening. And given we’re in a pandemic, it suggests there’s a lot of downside risk.”

Going forward into next week, Harrison said he’ll be looking at COVID numbers to continue to analyze what they may do the economy and whether they’ll have an impact on the “bubblicious” sectors.

He said the big question for markets and the economy is how market froth, the worsening pandemic, and a dysfunctional Congress will play out in the coming weeks.

RELATED CATEGORIES: Daily Briefing, Market Analysis, Technology