The administration of President Donald Trump has had little to do with the impressive rally in technology stocks, according to the CEO of one of the world’s largest computer chipmakers.
“I don’t believe, especially when you look at the technology stocks, people look at government or politics as to how they value us,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told CNBC Tuesday.
Speaking at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Krzanich said investors were more likely to focus on profit and revenue growth instead.
And while Intel’s CEO insisted he was a technologist — and not an economist — he said products, growth and the amount of innovation within the sector would continue to support technology stocks “more than anything in politics.”
In August, Krzanich resigned from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, citing the worrying direction of U.S. politics.
The Intel boss was the third CEO to step down from the group of corporate leaders in the span of one day after a growing backlash over the episode of white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump blamed both sides for the violence in August, including counter-protesters, which sparked criticism from many who saw it as an equivocal response.
In a blog post at the time, Krzanich said, “Politics and political agendas have sidelined the important mission of rebuilding America’s manufacturing base … I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.”
“Nearly every issue is now politicized to the point where significant progress is impossible,” he added.
Trump moved to disband the advisory group amid a flurry of resignations from other prominent business executives just two days later.
Meanwhile, the U.S. president has regularly sought to take credit for stock market records since his election exactly one year ago. At the first anniversary of his electoral win, the stock market’s gains rank number three in first term, postelection markets since Dwight Eisenhower won the 1952 election.
On Tuesday, Trump said recent stock market rallies were evidence of “great confidence” in his administration.
Tech giants Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon are the five top contributors to the S&P 500’s advance this year and — as of the end of October — these five stocks had accounted for 23 percent of the index’s gain, according to Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. That’s $572 billion of increased market value from five companies.
Source: Tech CNBC
Tech stock rally nothing to do with Trump administration, Intel CEO says