Big-tech Antitrust Report Spooks Wall Street

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission had agreed to co-ordinate antitrust enforcement over the biggest tech companies, with Justice taking the lead on Google and the FTC handling Facebook and some aspects of Amazon.

The report follows on the heels of myriad controversies involving the companies and as some presidential candidates call for the giants to broken up.

Shares of Facebook plunged 7.5 percent, Alphabet dropped 6.1 percent and Amazon 4.6 percent. Other large technology companies also fell significantly, including Apple, Netflix, Salesforce and Microsoft.

The latest probes "could be the start of a new anti-monopoly push in the industry", said Gorilla Trades strategist Ken Berman.

The tech rout comes on the heels of a May equity sell-off as the US and China drifted further apart on trade and after US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on all imports from Mexican starting June 10.

US manufacturing industry activity slowed further in May in the wake of the latest exchange of US and Chinese tariffs, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management. The organisation warned that the US tariffs on Mexico could significantly dent activity. (AFP)