Wall Street seems to believe Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential contest may bode well for Google-parent Alphabet. Google stock rose on Wednesday in the wake of Trump's election win and upcoming return to the White House in January amid two ongoing Department of Justice antitrust cases versus Alphabet.
On the stock market today, Google stock gained more than 3% to 175.38 in afternoon trading.
Trump has said that in his second act as president he will again name a new Attorney General for the DOJ. While Trump was critical of Google during the campaign, he stopped short of supporting a Google breakup.
Trump's DOJ could propose a settlement or propose different antitrust remedies.
"While Google's antitrust cases likely continue for the foreseeable future, a breakup is less likely, with rising potential for a 'slap on the hand fine,' similar to Microsoft in 2002," said Brian Pitz, a BMO Capital Markets analyst, in a report on Wednesday.
At a campaign event in Chicago in October, Trump told a crowd a Google breakup could backfire.
Google Stock: Artificial Intelligence Champion?
"If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it's more fair," he said.
Moreover, Google is a leader in artificial intelligence technology. Trump will likely ease regulatory rules on AI proposed by the Biden administration.
In early October, the Justice Department told a federal judge that it may ask for a breakup of Alphabet.
On Aug. 5, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google illegally maintained a monopoly over online search services and prevented rivals from developing their own products. A key part of the ruling centered on multibillion-dollar payments that Google makes to Apple and others to be the default search engine on the iPhone and browsers such as Firefox.
Those payments may be barred as part of the judge's ultimate ruling.
Judge Mehta plans to begin the remedy stage of the trial by spring 2025 and issue a ruling by next August.
Google is expected to appeal Mehta's ruling.
Google Advertising Antitrust Trial
Meanwhile, another government antitrust lawsuit versus Google started Sept. 9. Some analysts call it the "DoubleClick trial." In 2008, Google acquired leading digital advertising firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
The DOJ claims Google's dominance of the digital ad market has damaged advertisers and content creators. Testimony wrapped up in late September. Closing arguments are set for Nov. 25.
With Wednesday's gain, Google stock has advanced 25% in 2024.
Also, the Relative Strength Rating of Google stock currently stands at 65 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. The best stocks tend to have an RS rating of 80 or better. The relative strength line has tumbled.
Google stock holds an Accumulation/Distribution Rating of B-minus. That institutional ownership rating analyzes price and volume changes in a stock over the past 13 weeks of trading. A+ signifies heavy institutional buying; E means heavy selling. Think of a C grade as neutral.
On MarketSurge, Google stock has an entry point of 191.75.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
