Irish investor predicts Big Tech will boom further under Biden win  

Peter Brown of Baggot Investment Partners said that Joe Biden will bring the US 'back into the fold on climate change, which is all very good for the general investment environment'.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Del., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Big Tech, which includes Google and Apple, which have their European head offices and employ hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland, will likely continue to prosper after the defeat of Donald Trump and the end of his threat to pursue a vendetta against the US corporate giants, according to a leading Irish investor.

Peter Brown, senior investment advisor at Baggot Investment Partners, also said the US pledge for new stimulus means that for Ireland the era of ultra-low sovereign interest rates will continue and the economy here could rebound very strongly in the coming years, although hospitality jobs will suffer in the short term.

The Irish Government could borrow €50bn without damaging its credit rating to fuel investments in infrastructure projects, "but the only question is whether we look back in a number of years to find that the investments have been wasted", Mr Brown said.     

President Trump was going to go after Europe on tariffs, which would have hit Ireland hard, but "Biden is not going to do that, as he brings America back into the fold on climate change, which is all very good for the general investment environment," according to Mr Brown. 

Peter Brown, senior investment advisor at Baggot Investment Partners

He said the wishes of Joe Biden for a $4 trillion (€3.4trn) stimulus will likely be cut down to size by the current Republican majority in the US Senate ahead of run-off contests in Georgia. 

"As well, any more bad economic news from the Covid-19 pandemic is likely going to be met by more stimulus, so markets can go a lot further," said Mr Brown. 

"That may, in the short term, be a setback for markets — but for the longer term, it is going to make the markets more stable," Mr Brown said. 

"If he did a $4trn stimulus, the US would have to finance it somehow, and you would have austerity in a few years' time."  

On Big Tech, the US Department of Justice last month launched a competition lawsuit against Google which many observers believe will affect Apple indirectly, too. 

However, Mr Brown said that Mr Biden also favours economic restrictions and lockdowns to fight the Covid-19 health crisis, a move which might boost Amazon and other Big Tech shares even further.