On Wednesday, technology stocks in the US stock market rose strongly, with the Nasdaq index breaking through 20000 points for the first time, with a full year increase of over 33%. This upward trend may be driven not only by positive news from tech giants such as Apple and Google, but also by the selection of the new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that Andrew Ferguson will be the next chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, taking over from antitrust activist Lina Khan, who is known on Wall Street for blocking a series of large corporate acquisitions and initiating monopoly investigations into Amazon and Meta.
Ferguson may hold completely different policy views from Khan. He is currently one of the five commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission, but has always been regarded as Khan's most prominent dissident.
Jay Woods, Chief Global Strategist of a self owned capital markets company, stated that many believe that under Ferguson's leadership, the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation into Alphabet (Google's parent company) will come to an end.
Difficult to guess Trump
Although Trump and his team have been critical of large American technology companies, and Gail Slater, the previously appointed head of the antitrust investigation department at the US Department of Justice, is also a more aggressive antitrust figure, the market still has doubts about Trump's technology regulation and merger and acquisition policies during his tenure.
And Ferguson's appointment also represents that Trump's anti-monopoly attitude is not so firm, as Ferguson seems only willing to scrutinize large technology companies strictly at certain specific times.
According to some people's mockery, if technology companies are scrutinizing conservatives, Ferguson will not hesitate to show hostility. When technology companies lean towards right-wing Republicans, such as Musk's X, Ferguson will give praise.
According to another campaign document, Ferguson seems to have promised to overturn Khan's tough antitrust enforcement, abolish cumbersome regulations, and stop the merger and acquisition obstruction war. He also claimed that he would end the attempt of the Federal Trade Commission to become the US AI regulator.
It is interesting that Khan, a Democrat who does not align with Ferguson's views, has received widespread praise within the Trump team. Vance commented earlier this year that Khan is probably one of the few officials in the Biden administration who has done a good job.
US Vice President elect Vance has been hoping to persuade Republicans to take action against large corporations in the past few years, and has touted himself as a voice for the working class. But in reality, Trump's own ideas may differ from Vance's.
In many of Trump's appointments, billionaires and business executives have been found to hold extremely important positions. At the same time, Trump also promised to provide regulatory exemptions for large companies and a green channel for companies investing over $1 billion in the United States.
These measures will undoubtedly stimulate the economic strength of the United States, but also weaken the hope of many voters to limit the expansion of corporate power.