Another step along the path came today, as the White House announced that Trump will  hold a press conference tomorrow, regarding China’s move to control Hong Kong.  

Stocks came off hard, late in the day, on the news.  And assuming this press conference doesn’t take place until late tomorrow afternoon, it’s a pretty safe bet that tomorrow will be a “risk-off” day for markets as we head into the weekend. 

Add to that, the President signed an executive order this afternoon, to pursue legislation to regulate social media platforms.  This should weigh on broader stocks too, as we end the week.   

We’ve talked about this slow moving “regulatory purgatory” for the tech giants, in my notes for the past two years.   

The tech giants have gotten too big to manage, too powerful and too dangerous for the economy (and society). 

But ironically, regulation only widens the moats for these companies, given their scale and maturity.  The higher cost of compliance, the smaller the chance that there will ever be another Facebook developed in a dorm room.    

That said, the regulation of the “disruptors” should open the door for the “disrupted” to survive.  But the position of dominance by Amazon, Facebook, Google (etc.) seems to have been set – the die has been cast.