Tech Stocks Fall Amid Twitter, Facebook Senate Testimonies

Facebook, Inc. FB COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter, Inc. TWTR CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednedsay testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. A representative from Alphabet GOOGL’s Google failed to attend, which Sen. Mark Warner warned will hurt the company’s reputation.

What Happened

Sandberg and Dorsey were grilled about potential election interference, as well as allegations of bias, before making announcements pertaining to their company’s focus on removing pages with inauthentic behavior.

When a company within such a prominent industry exhibits transparency such as this, stocks generally react in some way, but TD Ameritrade's trader strategy manager Shawn Cruz anticipated a minimal reverberation.

"I don't think there's going to be anything earth-shattering that will impact how investors view those companies... With the tech companies, I think a lot of the regulatory risk is already priced in," Cruz told Benzinga.

Despite the companies’ best efforts to defend their brands, tech stocks reacted conversely.

Stock Activity

Several tech stocks saw heavy selling pressure shortly after Wednesday's opening. At time of publication:

Facebook shares were down 2.5 percent at $166.78.

• Twitter shares were down 5.8 percent at $32.80.
• Google shares were down 1.1 percent at $1,197.19.
• Square, Inc. SQ shares were down 4.1 percent at $87.15.
• Netflix, Inc. NFLX shares were down 5.5 percent at $343.43.
• The Meet Group, Inc. MEET shares were down 4 percent at $4.88.
• Match Group, Inc. MTCH shares were down 3.2 percent at $50.62.
• World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. WWE shares were down 2.8 percent at $86.19.
• Roku, Inc. ROKU shares were down 1.52 percent at $61.68.
• Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN shares were down 2.2 percent at $1.993.17.

What’s Next

The Justice Department said Wednesday it has convened a meeting with state attorneys general to discuss concerns that social media platforms were “intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas.”

According to Sen. Warner, lawmakers will continue to meet with social media companies going forward. Will tech stocks continue to suffer in light of Congressional involvement and regulation?

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