A Wary Tech Sector Is Booming in the Land of Trump

[Commentary] Silicon Valley wasn’t a happy place when Donald Trump was elected president. Tech companies have thrived on international trade and immigration and see President Trump as hostile to both. While the digital economy is concentrated in liberal, coastal enclaves, President Trump draws his most intense support from the old-economy states of the upper Midwest. Yet as the Nasdaq Composite Index’s first-ever close above 6000 demonstrates, technology has flourished more under President Trump than any other industry, save banking. President Trump has been much less negative for tech than his rhetoric implied. US tech companies are disproportionately exposed to foreign markets and would have been among the first casualties of a trade war. But President Trump has so far restricted his protectionist actions to narrowly focused industries rather than entire countries, and a trade war looks increasingly unlikely. Companies such as Apple Inc. with large stashes of foreign profits would gain big if President Trump cuts the tax rate on such profits. And his antiregulatory appointees are less likely to impose onerous privacy protections on the likes of Google.