Tough Times for the Giants

A rough day for three of America’s biggest companies yesterday, due to possible antitrust action:

• After a Reuters report saying the Justice Department is considering a probe of the company’s practices, Apple's market capitalization below the $800 billion mark for the first time in nearly four months. That leaves Apple in third place on the list of most valuable U.S. companies, behind Microsoft at $923.4 billion and Amazon.com at $835.3 billion.  
• Facebook shares fell as much as 8 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that said the FTC will be able to examine the effect of Facebook’s practices on digital competition. Facebook’s drop shaved more than $40 billion from its market cap, bringing it to about $463 billion.
• Alphabet shares slipped after a report said the Justice Department is readying an antitrust investigation against its prime subsidiary, Google. Alphabet shares dropped 6.7 percent on  the day.