Big Tech Stocks Soar as China Hits Pause on Tariffs—Wall Street Breathes (For Now)
Tech giants ride the tariff-truce wave—because nothing fuels innovation like temporary geopolitical Band-Aids.
FAANG+ stocks surge as Beijing delays trade war escalation. Nasdaq futures spike 2% pre-market. Because when China blinks, algorithms buy.
The cynical kicker:
Analysts already pricing in the next ’unexpected’ trade war tweet. Stay hedged, folks.
See “Information” on that chart? That’s technology, and according to the St. Louis Fed, the industry has become about 5% more productive each year between 2019 and 2024.
But what about the labor force? Isn’t AI coming for jobs? Yes and no. General consensus seems to be that AI will both create and destroy jobs. For now, I’d argue the biggest impact the Big Tech push into AI has had on the labor market isn’t that humans are being replaced by machines. It’s that their salaries are being redirected to fund those machines.
The St. Louis Fed’s report notes that manufacturing jobs now make up a smaller share of overall employment, but productivity has increased. Economic growth happens when either more people are employed or when productivity increases. In a perfect world, we get both.
Also, in a perfect world, ChatGPT doesn’t come for this journalist’s job. Here’s hoping.
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