Following the U.S. stock market crash of March, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) combined have added $2.7 trillion to their market cap.

Meanwhile, the stock markets disconnect with the real economy has gotten worse.

While U.S. GDP has lost $2 trillion, the stock market has added $4 trillion to the total market cap of companies in the S&P 500.

Of course, the Federal Reserves balance sheet explosion has aided the stock market rally since March.

The Feds balance sheet expansion has been a common factor in the tech giants rallies since March. These tech companies, along with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), have carried the stock market higher over the past four months.

As the economy suffered under government lockdown orders, the big tech giants were in prime position to smash earnings expectations in Q2.

Apple shares rallied more than 10% to make new all-time highs after reporting sales growth of 11% in Q2 2020 results. Last weeks rally allowed Apple to overtake Saudi Aramco as the worlds most valuable company.

Amazons second-quarter saw the companys sales take off despite the coronavirus pandemic-induced slowdown. Its shares rallied post-earnings before undergoing a bit of profit booking.

Meanwhile, Facebook reported revenue growth of 11% despite an ad boycott from various companies. Its shares gapped up almost 7% post-earnings before a mild selloff.

Alphabet rallied 38% from the March low. After reporting an unprecedented revenue decline, its shares declined post-earnings.

High expectations from Microsoft made the stock rally 25% from the March lows. After reporting spectacular earnings, the stock continued its uptrend.

While Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple have returned 35% in 2020, the remaining 495 stocks in the S&P 500 are in the red.

These giants have carried the stock market on their shoulders; if any one of them drops abruptly, the whole market could enter a downward spiral.

Because of this, analysts at Morgan Stanley have predicted a 10% selloff in the U.S. stock market.

If the prediction comes true, the selloff would be reminiscent ofwhat happened to the Nifty-Fifty stocks back in the 1970s. Nifty-Fifty refers to the group of 50 stocks that led the markets toall-time highs in the early 1970s, followed by a 46% crash.

While these stocks had led the rallies to the top, they also led the nosedive that followed.

Back then, Forbes wrote,

The Nifty-Fifty were taken out and shot one by one.

Could the same happen to the tech giants driving the market rally in 2020?

Disclaimer: This article represents the authors opinion and should not be considered investment or trading advice from CCN.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author holds no investment position in the above-mentioned securities.

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Nifty-Fifty All Over Again? Why Investors Should Fear Big Tech Rally - CCN.com

Here is todays Foreign Policy brief: The U.S.House Judiciary Committee plans to grill Big Tech leaders on antitrust, Taliban leaders announce a three-day cease-fire, and working level U.S.-Russian nuclear talks begin in Vienna.

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Big Techs (Virtual) Showdown

At noon today in Washington, four of the worlds most powerful tech leaders will testify before a U.S. Congressional committee investigating whether their companies have become too dominant in their respective markets. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will all testify via video conference. It will be Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoss first time appearing before Congress.

The hearing has been called by the antitrust panel of the House Judiciary Committee and is part of a year-long investigation into possible monopolistic practices of the tech giants as Chairman David Cicilline, a Democrat, attempts to build a case for updating current U.S. antitrust laws.

Appitol Hill. All four companies are immensely profitable, and any effort to break them up or impose onerous regulations will be fought aggressively by a sector becoming more and more at home in Washington. Since 2014, the amount Amazon has spent lobbying the U.S. government has more than tripled and overtook the spending of AlphabetGoogles parent companyin 2019.

What theyll say. Despite user bases in the billions, expect each tech leader to play down their companys dominance (and in Mark Zuckerbergs case, talk up TikToks competitor status). Although the hearing is ostensibly about antitrust, expect Republican lawmakers to bring up perceived censorshipofconservativeviews on web platforms and Democrats to raise concerns about disinformation headed into the U.S. presidential election.

What Were Following Today

Taliban calls cease-fire. The Taliban has announced a three-day cease-fire during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, with the suspension of hostilities scheduled to begin this Friday. Separately, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has suggested peace talks are imminent, based on his government nearing an agreed number of prisoner releases. With this action, we look forward to the start of direct negotiations with the Taliban in a weeks time, Ghani said. The decision comes as U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is due to visit Afghanistan this week.

Russian and U.S. officials meet for nuclear talks. Working groups of government experts from Russia and the United States meet in Vienna today to begin three days of talks on the topic of nuclear arms control ahead of the expiry of the New START agreement. The meetings follow negotiations between U.S. arms control envoy Marshall Billingslea and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in June.

U.S. admits to killing civilian in Somalia. U.S. Africa Command (Africom) has admitted to killing one civilian and injuring three others in a February 2 airstrike in Somalia. It is only the second time Africom has admitted to killing civilians in its Africa operations since it began reporting. The strike took place near Jilib, an area south of Somalias capital Mogadishu. The Feb. 2 killing had been highlighted in a report by Amnesty International in March, and at the time U.S. officials maintained that only terrorists had been killed in the operation. Africoms commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend said the military did not intend to target civilians in their operations against al-Shabab. We work hard to prevent civilians from getting hurt or killed during these operations designed to bring increased security and stability to Somalia, Townsend said.

Powells view on economy. The monthly meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserves Federal Open Market Committee, which sets U.S. interest rates, takes place today in Washington. Although rates are expected to remain unchanged, Fed chief Jerome Powells subsequent press conference should give an insight into the direction central bankers see the U.S. economy going in the coming months and whether more intervention is needed.

Australia to increase cooperation with U.S. Australia has agreed to increased and regularized maritime cooperation with the United States in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean following a meeting between the countries top defense and foreign-policy officials. The declaration does not mean Australia will join U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the disputed sea, a practice that Beijing deems provocative. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told reporters that Australia has no intention of injuringits relationship with China, its number one trade partner. A joint statement also announced the formation of a U.S.-Australian working group to respond to disinformation efforts in the region.

Biden to announce running mate. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic party nominee for president told reporters on Tuesday that he will announce his choice of running mate by next week. Biden has promised to choose a woman for the role, although there is not yet a clear frontrunner. On Tuesday, Biden was photographed with handwritten notes with a list of positive talking points about California Senator Kamala Harris. Politico also accidentally published a page on its website which named Harris as Bidens running mate, before it was swiftly updated and the claim was removed.

In a development that may have been more welcome in the earliest stage of lockdown, when bread-baking and gardening were in vogue, residents in more than a dozen U.S. states have reported receiving suspicious packages of seeds, apparently from China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the mystery, and has advised anyone who has received the seeds to refrain from planting them. It is speculated that the seeds may have been part of a brushing scam, whereby products are shipped to unwitting addressees in order to create a fraudulent (but authentic-looking) review online in order to drive sales. At this point in time, we dont have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam or an act of agricultural bio-terrorism, Ryan Quarles, the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, said.

Thats it for today.

For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.

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Why Big Tech Is Colliding With Washington - Foreign Policy

Wednesdays House Judiciary Committee hearing represents a rare opportunity for Congress: to hold the leaders of the biggest technology companies feet to the fire, with an eye toward reining in their expansive and largely unchecked power. But a memo obtained by Politico Tuesday on the eve of the hearing suggests Republicans plan to squander that chance, with GOP members of the panel preparing to set aside the very real antitrust issues raised by Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazonand, instead, to use their time to probe the Big Four on the very not real issue of anti-conservative bias at the companies.

Political bias in big tech should be decried, the memo reads, but antitrust wont solve it.

Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Google-parent Alphabets Sundar Pichai, and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg are all due on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a highly-anticipated clash between the countrys most powerful tech leaders and the Congressional committee aiming to curb them. But while distrust of the Big Four is bipartisan, Republicans are attacking the companies for all the wrong reasons. Democrats are concerned about what seems to be monopolistic behavior, as well as the role of Facebook and other social media platforms in the spread of false and misleading information and in foreign election interference. These platforms have been allowed to run wild and free from really any constraints, David Cicilline, chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, told the Wall Street Journal. The responsibility we have is to make clear what the impacts are of the lack of competition in the digital marketplace.

But Republicans seem less concerned with the potential antitrust abuses that have led to calls from Elizabeth Warren and others on the left to break up big tech. Conservatives, instead, have based their Silicon Valley attacks on the notion that these firms and their leaders have it in for theman idea that simply isnt rooted in reality. Donald Trump and his allies have long belly-ached that social media companies are working to undermine him; just this week, he whined, ludicrously, that Twitters trending topics about him are ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair! So disgusting to watch Twitters so-called Trending, where sooo many trends are about me, and never a good one, the president wrote, in the middle of a pandemic thats killed more than 150,000 Americans. They look for anything they can find, make it as bad as possible, and blow it up, trying to make it trend. Thats not quite how it works, of course, and while Twitter chief Jack Dorsey has shown some spine recently in labeling or removing Trumps tweets that are dangerous or false, the president remains the sites most prominent user, and he continues to reap massive benefit from the megaphone it has provided him.

Of course, Zuckerberg has resisted even the kind of careful measures Dorsey has implemented to police hate and misinformation on his platform. On the contrary, Zuckerberg has courted the president and other conservatives in recent months, and his company has become a home to the right, which has used the platform as a dumping ground for conservative views and conspiracy theoriesmuch to the chagrin of rank-and-file employees, who have been increasingly open about their frustrations with Zuck, Sheryl Sandberg, and other company leaders.

Republicans are likely to point to some high-profile episodes, like Donald Trump Jr. and other Republicans having their Twitter accounts suspended and videos removed from Facebook after recklessly posting disinformation about a disproven COVID-19 therapy promoted by the president, as evidence they are being censored. Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online, Trump Jr. spokesman Andy Surabian told the Washington Post after the presidents son had his Twitter account suspended. But the president's son didnt have his account temporarily restricted over partisan speech; he got a time-out for blasting false and irresponsible claims about a public health crisis.

That these platforms, with broad and mostly unbridled power, have the potential to disseminate such dangerous lies and conspiracy theories is a far more pressing issue. Lawmakers on Wednesday have a real opportunity to challenge Americas most prominent tech leaders on their anti-competitive behavior and its impact on both democracy and everyday Americans but itll be wasted if Republicans spend their time stunting about nonexistent anti-conservative censorship and prosecuting Trumps petty crusade against Bezos.

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Republicans Are Mad At Big Tech For All The Wrong Reasons - Vanity Fair

Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Googles Sundar Pichai and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, CEOs of four of the worlds most powerful companies, are testifying before Congress Wednesday.

Specifically, they are going before the Houses Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, and the issue here boils down to power. How did these companies get it? Did they do so legally, or did they break rules? Finally, do they have too much power?

Erik Gordon, professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, spoke with host Sabri Ben-Achour. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: So can you explain why this hearing is happening? And, specifically, why this question of how these companies became so powerful and whether they did so legally is an issue right now?

Erik Gordon: The hearing is happening because members of Congress think that these companies are really powerful, and that theyre abusing their power, and that Congress should look into it and maybe pass some new laws. The question you brought up is the key question. Under current antitrust law, its perfectly OK to be big and to be powerful, and, in fact, to be a monopoly, as long as you got big and powerful by lawful means, as long as you didnt do anything illegal. The government cant break you up, under current law, just for being big.

Ben-Achour: So whats an example of how, say, Google or Facebook or whichever might have accumulated power illegally?

Gordon: Suppose you have a dominant online search engine, and you use that search engine dominance to make you even more powerful in an other area. So, for example, suppose you say, You can only use my search engine, if you use my browser. Now you get big and powerful in the browser business, because you already had power in the search engine business. That would be an example of getting bigger and more powerful illegally.

Ben-Achour: Do you think anything significant will come out of these hearings? Or are they sort of theatrical?

Gordon: I have a sense that in an election year, were going to see some theater. Its an opportunity for politicians to control the questions. They get to put together some nice sound bites for their campaign. This isnt the first round of hearings we had, and in the other hearings, where there were some beat-ups of Zuckerberg and other tech people, oh, a few bills were introduced in Congress. They didnt go anywhere. Nothing much happened.

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Are the Big Tech companies breaking antitrust rules? Their CEOs testify before Congress. - Marketplace

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you want something thats not afraid to compete for your attention, try this fine newsletter.

The House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, after a brief delay, is summoning Big Tech to explain itself Wednesday. Called to testify are the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook.

Together, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg oversee companies worth about $6.3 trillion. They didnt get that way by being shy about crushing the competition. Remember Cuil? Quidsi? Palm? Path? Exactly.

If youre the drinking type, pour a shot every time you hear a CEO talk about obsessing about customers, not competitors; worrying about Chinese competitors waiting in the wings; making a positive difference in society; and having pathetically small market share, really, if you just count it correctly.

Expect a lot of naive, time-wasting questions from our elected representatives. If you remember Zuckerbergs four-hour House hearing in 2018, it wasnt exactly a shining moment for Congress. (You love America, we know that was one memorable quote.)

If subcommittee members were serious, heres what theyd ask:

Where do you get the data that informs your decisions to buy smaller tech companies? Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabets Google all have unique lenses into online activity, and the cloud infrastructure they are building just adds to their ability to surveil smaller rivals before they become real challengers. One clue Zuckerberg had about Instagrams early hypergrowth was the number of photos users were posting from the startups mobile app to Facebooks social network.

What tools do you have to retaliate against startups that refuse to sell to you? Amazon threatened a price war against Quidsi before buying it. After Twitter turned down a Facebook buyout offer, Facebook turned off access to its friends lists.

Do users have a reasonable way to extract their personal data and share it with competitors? Most big tech companies offer some kind of way to export user data. That doesnt mean its useful.

How do you restrain entrepreneurs who sell their startups to you from starting new competitive ventures? The best way Silicon Valley has of self-regulating against would-be monopolists is its ability to churn out new startups. Noncompete agreements prevent that from happening.

I dont expect any of these topics to come up at the Wednesday hearing, because posturing and lecturing is a lot easier. But in between shots, there might be room for hope.

Owen Thomas, othomas@sfchronicle.com

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Hopefully theyll look to the facts, understand the values of the people that theyre thinking about and understand that were in this together. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, speaking to CNBC on the prospects for public acceptance of a coronavirus vaccine

From Capitol Hill to Wall Street: Apple, Facebook and Alphabet report earnings Thursday, the day after their CEOs wrap up their congressional testimony.

Dana Mattoli and Cara Lombardo on Amazons habit of competing with startups it invests in. (Wall Street Journal)

Roland Li on Googles long-term work-from-home plans. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Teddy Schleifer on Peter Thiels latest political backing of restrictions on immigration. (Recode)

Tech Chronicle is a weekly newsletter from Owen Thomas, The Chronicles business editor, and the rest of the tech team. Follow along on Twitter: @techchronicle and Instagram: @techchronicle

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Congress is going to ask Big Techs leaders all the wrong questions. Here are the right ones - San Francisco Chronicle

BY THE NUMBERS

Dow futures indicated a roughly 70-point gain at the opening bell, ahead of a blockbuster Big Tech congressional hearing, a Fed policy statement and another batch of corporate earnings reports. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures also were mildly higher. The Dow on Tuesday fell about 205 points, or .77%. The S&P 500 gave up .65% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite sank 1.27%.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen in three of the past four trading days, although all remain on course for solid July gains. The Dow begins the new day at a more than two-week low, coming off its lowest close since July 13.

*Treasury yields edge higher ahead of Fed interest rate decision (CNBC)

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee will issue its latest policy statement at 2:00 p.m. ET, followed by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's virtual news conference 30 minutes later.

General Electric (GE), Boeing (BA), and General Motors (GM) lead a long list of morning earnings reports; streaming service Spotify (SPOT) also reports. After the bell, PayPal (PYPL), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Yum China (YUMC) are scheduled to post quarterly earnings.

*GM swings to a loss as coronavirus shuttered factories and devastated sales (CNBC)*GE reports quarterly loss as coronavirus pandemic hits hard (Reuters)*Boeing posts net loss of $2.4 billion and slows aircraft production amid coronavirus-weakened demand (CNBC)

Total mortgage application volume fell 0.8% last week from the previous week, according to theMortgage Bankers Association's latest report.Mortgage applications to buy a home were down 2% last week compared to the prior week but 21% higher annually. (CNBC)

The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google-parent Alphabet and Facebookare set to testify in front the House Antitrust Subcommittee later today. The blockbuster virtual hearing will be Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos' first congressional testimony. It comes as part of the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into Big Tech and potential anti-competitive practices. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to defend Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, portraying them as key to creating better services for both users and advertisers. (CNBC)

*Jeff Bezos will testify about how Amazon is the quintessential American company (CNBC)*Google CEO Sundar Pichai plans to tell Congress the company faces plenty of competition (CNBC)*Tim Cook will testify that Apple is in fierce competition with Google and Huawei (CNBC)

Biotech firm Moderna (MRNA) is planning to price its potential coronavirus vaccine at $50 to $60 per course for high-income countries, according to a Financial Times report. The price for the two-dose vaccine comes in higher than the proposed price from Pfizer(PFE) and German-based BioNTech, according to Reuters, based on the companies' $1.95 billion deal with the U.S. government to produce and deliver 100 million doses. The price for Moderna's vaccine, which entered late-stage human trials earlier this week, is not finalized, Reuters reported. (FT)

Hong Kong is increasing its restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 as local officials warn the city is at risk of a large-scale virus outbreak. There's been an "upsurge" in local infections, said Chief ExecutiveCarrie Lam, who warned of overrunning the health-care system. The government is banning gatherings of more than two people, suspending indoor dining at restaurants and requiring face masks in public. (Reuters)

*Europe scrambles to avoid a second coronavirus wave, as infections rise (Washington Post)

The U.S. Senate will not pass a coronavirus relief bill that does not have liability shields for businesses and universities, Majority LeaderMitch McConnelltold CNBC. The Kentucky Republican said Tuesday on "Closing Bell" that the GOP was "not negotiating over liability protection," but he added the party was open to compromise with Democrats on other issues. Senate Republicans released their roughly $1 trillion legislative proposal on Monday. (CNBC)

*Most swing state voters support extending $600 weekly unemployment benefit, CNBC/Change Research poll finds(CNBC)

The Trump administration has started negotiations with the office of Oregon's governor over the presence of federal agents in Portland, according to the Associated Press, expressing a willingness to scale back if the state increases its own enforcement in the city, which has seen nearly two months of nightly protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. The talks are still in the early stages and no agreement is in place, the wire service reported. (AP)

*Portland protests bring early-morning clash with feds after more than 1,000 turn out Tuesday (The Oregonian)* Attorney General Barr, grilled by House Democrats, defends aggressive federal response in Portland (LA Times)

In a historic move,AMC Theaters(AMC) and Comcast-ownedUniversal Picturesinked an agreement to shorten the theatrical release window for Universal's movies, allowing them to head to digital streaming just 17 days after their debut on the big screen. Theaters previously would have the exclusive rights to films for about 90 days. AMC will share in some of the new revenue from the digital on-demand rentals. Comcast is parent company of CNBC and NBCUniversal. (CNBC)

Starbucks (SBUX) exceeded Wall Street expectations in its earnings report and raised its adjusted earnings outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter, sending its stock up more than 5% in premarket trading. The coffee chain expressed optimism about its recovery from the coronavirus in the U.S. and China, although it saw global same-store sales plunge 40% in the quarter. (CNBC)

*Restaurant transactions plateau as coronavirus cases surge (CNBC)

The American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers' unions in the U.S., will support any of its local chapters that decide to strike if they feel school reopening plans are not safe enough. The federation, which represents 1.7 million school employees, said in its Tuesday resolution that striking should be the last option, but it called for reopening plans to include social distancing measures and mask requirements. It also said buildings should only reopen in places where coronavirus transmission rates are low. (USA Today)

Visa (V) came in 4 cents above estimates with quarterly earnings of $1.07 per share, with revenue above estimates as well. The payments processor did say that payment volume was down 10% during the quarter with profit dropping 23%, as consumer spending was hit by rising unemployment.

Mondelez (MDLZ) reported adjusted quarterly profit of 63 cents per share, 7 cents above estimates, with the snack maker's revenue slightly above Wall Street forecasts. Strong demand for its snacks in North America helped offset other declines, and Mondelez also announced an 11% dividend increase.

FireEye (FEYE) surprised analysts who had expected a loss by reporting an adjusted profit of 9 cents per share with revenue above estimates as well. The cybersecurity company benefited from the shift to cloud-based work amid the pandemic.

Avis Budget (CAR) reported a quarterly loss of $5.60 per share, slightly smaller than the loss of $5.68 that analysts were expecting. The car rental's revenue beat estimates, with a recovering used car market and increased leisure rentals helping results.

L Brands (LB) is cutting 15% of its corporate staff, amounting to 850 jobs. The parent of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works also projected a smaller than expected current quarter sales decline.

Spirit Airlines (SAVE) will tell its unions to be prepared for possible October furloughs of 20 to 30% of workers, according to a memo sent to employees and first reported by Reuters.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) beat estimates by 2 cents with adjusted quarterly profit of 18 cents per share, with the chip maker's revenue above estimates as well. AMD also raised its full-year forecast, as the surge in the number of employees working from home raises demands for its chips.

EBay (EBAY) reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.08 per share, 2 cents above estimates, with the e-commerce company's revenue also beating forecasts. It also raised its full-year outlook, amid more online shopping by people staying indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amgen (AMGN) earned an adjusted $4.25 per share for its latest quarter, compared to a $3.82 consensus estimate, with revenue above forecasts as well. The biotech company was helped by stronger sales of its newer drugs.

Budweiser has unveiled its newest beer with a twist. It has no alcohol. The 50-calorie Bud Zero is now going out nationwide and was created with the help of former NBA star Dwyane Wade. The new drink gives Anheuser Busch Inbev (BUD) further exposure to the non-alcoholic beer category, which has been growing fast this year. (USA Today)

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What to watch today: Dow to open higher ahead of Big Tech hearing and Fed policy decision - CNBC

July 29, 2020 at 12:01 am ET

55% of adults, including 64% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans, said they believe Congress has a lot or some understanding of how to regulate the tech industry.

Republicans were most likely to trust the president (70%) with regulating the industry in the best way.

With the House antitrust subcommittee ready to pull out all the stops ahead of todays hearing with the chief executives of Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc., a new survey suggests that most of the public has little or no faith in Congress ability to regulate the tech industry.

More than half (55 percent) of the 2,200 adults surveyed in a Morning Consult poll conducted July 23-26 said they believe Congress had a lot or some understanding of how to regulate the technology industry, but they were 9 percentage points less likely, at 46 percent, to trust the lawmakers best to do so. Adults, regardless of party affiliation, were more likely to trust other government institutions, such as the court system (57 percent) and federal agencies (53 percent), to best regulate the sector.

The survey has a margin of error of 2 points.

Both Democrats and Republicans saw a nearly 10-point discrepancy between whether they believed Congress had at least some understanding of how to regulate tech companies and whether they trusted federal lawmakers to best approach such regulation. Among Democrats, 64 percent said they believed Congress understood the issue, while 56 percent said they had trust in the legislative branch an 8-point gap. Democrats were far more likely to trust members of their party (74 percent) and the courts (64 percent) with tech regulation than Capitol Hill.

And among Republicans, 56 percent said they believed Congress understood either a lot or some of the issues, but only 47 percent trusted them at least somewhat with doing so in the best way a 9-point dip. They were more inclined to say they trusted the president (70 percent) and fellow Republicans (67 percent).

Key members of the House Judiciary Committee will spend hours this afternoon seeking answers from the four tech executives Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg in response to a slew of allegations that their companies abuse their market power by making it harder for competitors to succeed in their respective industries. The hearing is expected to be the culmination of a nearly 14-month congressional investigation into the four tech giants, led by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), the antitrust subcommittees chairman. So far, the inquiry has yielded 1.3 million documents of evidence some of which could be unveiled during the hearing, senior congressional aides told reporters last week.

However, Congress has a history of failing to understand certain tech issues: When Googles Pichai last appeared before a congressional panel in December 2018, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) complained about a notification that appeared on his granddaughters iPhone, a product made by Apple Inc.

Underscoring the panels investigation, however, is an American public with mixed views on tech regulation. A plurality of adults (35 percent) said they didnt know or had no opinion on whether the federal government needs to regulate the tech industry more, less or exactly the same as it is doing currently. Thirty percent said the industry needs more regulation, while 24 percent said it was being regulated the right amount and 11 percent said the federal government should regulate it less.

And that sense of uncertainty goes hand-in-hand with how U.S. adults view the amount of power the tech industry has. When asked to choose which industry holds the most power and influence in America, technology in Silicon Valley ranked last: 6 percent picked tech, compared to 42 percent who chose politics in Washington. The share who picked the tech industry is statistically unchanged since the first time the question was asked in a February 2018 survey.

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Ahead of Big Tech Hearing, Less Than Half of the Public Trusts Congress to Best Regulate the Industry - Morning Consult