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8/15/2020 07:08am
Week in review: How Trump's policies moved stocks

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump and his administration with this weekly recap compiled by The Fly:

1. TRADE TALKS PUSHED OUT: On Friday, Reuters reported that a review of the "phase 1" trade deal between the U.S. and China that was initially slated for Saturday will be delayed due to scheduling issues. No new date has been agreed upon yet for the talks, the report added.

2. DRUG PRICING: President Trump said via Twitter that, "Drug companies, which are being forced by me to substantially reduce Drug Prices, are taking $millions in ads saying I want to increase Medicare Premiums. Wrong, just the opposite! These ads show DRUG PRICES ARE GOING DOWN, and they are not happy! False advertising!" Large cap drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY).

3. MISINFORMATION DISCUSSION: Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG) and Twitter (TWTR) have held talks with federal officials on how the social-media platforms can prevent the spread of misinformation leading up to and after the election, Dustin Volz and Emily Glazer of The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. These discussions came as the U.S. intelligence community warned of foreign interference and President Trump questioned the vote's integrity.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies were all reportedly involved in the talks. With COVID-19 expected to result in a large increase of people voting by mail, the federal officials and companies are concerned that any delay or problems with mail-in voting could enable the circulation of fake stories about how the votes are being tallied.

4. WECHAT, TIKTOK BAN: More than a dozen major U.S. multinational companies, including Apple (AAPL), Disney (DIS), Ford (F) and Walmart (WMT), raised concerns in a call with White House officials Tuesday about the potentially broad scope and impact of President Trump's executive order targeting WeChat (TCEHY), The Wall Street Journal's John D. McKinnon and Lingling Wei reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Citing a White House document, Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper of Reuters reported that President Trump's executive order banning TikTok could thwart U.S. app stores from offering the app and make advertising on the platform illegal. This comes amid concerns over the security of personal data that the TikTok app handles. Accepting terms of service to download the app onto a user device reportedly may also be deemed a prohibited transaction as well. Technology experts have said disqualifying TikTok's ability to be offered on iPhone and Android app stores, which enable it to be downloaded to smartphones, could undermine the app's growth.

5. CHALLENGE TO SOCIAL MEDIA ORDER: The Trump administration is asking a court to dismiss the tech industry's legal challenge to his executive order taking aim at social media companies, Reuters' Nandita Bose reported earlier this week. The lawsuit was brought in June by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group backed by Facebook, Twitter, and Alphabet's subsidiary Google, which called Trump's directive "unconstitutional."

6. GUEST WORKER SUSPENSION: Some of the U.S.'s biggest tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Microsoft (MSFT), are speaking out against President Trump's suspension of guest worker visas, The Verge's Makena Kelly reported, citing an amicus brief filed Monday.

In the brief, the tech giants contend that the new restrictions could dramatically impact how the nation's economy recovers from the COVID-19 crisis, Kelly wrote. "The President's suspension of nonimmigrant visa programs, supposedly to 'protect' American workers, actually harms those workers, their employers, and the economy," the amicus reads. Other companies arguing against the restrictions in the brief include Netflix (NFLX), Adobe (ADBE), Reddit, GitHub, and PayPal (PYPL).

"Week in Review" is The Fly's weekly recap of its recurring series of "Trump Effect" exclusive stories.

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