The Dow Jones industrial average fell around 120 points after sliding more than 223.39 points, dropping below 20,000, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most losses. Most of the companies who criticized Trump’s temporary travel ban on the 7 nations Obama’s DHS identified as terror hotbed nations lost money in the stock market today. Apparently keeping our country safe takes a back seat to these companies, unless of course, we see another major terror attack in America by an unvetted refugee, then they’ll all be lining up behind Trump and complaining he didn’t do enough…
Among the high profile companies opposing Trump’s seven Muslim country refugee and immigration ban:
• Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) was down 0.83 percent. Amazon has big operations in the Phoenix area. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Bezos sent a memo to all of his employees stating, “This executive order is one we do not support,” and the memo listed several actions the company was taking to opposed the order.
“We’re a nation of immigrants whose diverse backgrounds, ideas, and points of view have helped us build and invent as a nation for over 240 years…. It’s a distinctive competitive advantage for our country—one we should not weaken.”
• Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was down 0.23 percent, Apple reported strong earnings Tuesday afternoon. Its shares were up in after-hours trading. Apple has a big data center in Mesa.
• Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) was down 1.22 percent closing at $55.22 per share, according to Google Finance. Starbucks has an education partnership with Arizona State University.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
“We are living in an unprecedented time,” Schultz said in a memo to Starbucks (SBUX) employees. He pledged to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in the 75 countries where Starbucks does business to “reinforce our belief in our partners around the world.”
Yesterday a huge #BoycottStarbucks campaign was started on Twitter and Facebook. Starbucks took a big hit in the stock market today:
Here’s what we don’t need…advice from America’s wealthiest welfare recipient, Tesla’s Elon Musk:
The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017
Tesla’s Elon Musk criticized Trump’s temporary travel ban. Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space.
And he’s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The LA Times.
• Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 0.74 percent.
Microsoft said it’s providing legal advice and assistance to its employees affected by the executive order.
“We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully,” the tech giant said in a statement.
According to Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith, 76 Microsoft employees are citizens with a U.S. visa from the affected countries.
MasterCard Inc. MA, +0.02% CEO Ajay Banga, who was born in India, sent an email to company employees expressing his deep concern over the fracturing society. According to The Wall Street Journal, Banga said MasterCard has been in close contact with employees who’ve been affected by the ban and is working to help them and their families.
“What affects one of us, affects all of us,” he wrote.
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) — one of the few Wall Street firms to speak out against Trump’s orders — was down 1.96 percent closing at $229.32 per share. Goldman was one of the key drivers for the post-election rally and the Dow hitting 20,000 last week.
• Early Twitter Inc. TWTR, -0.17% and Uber investor Chris Sacca said he would match donations to the ACLU up to $75,000.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had this to say about Trump’s temporary travel ban:
The Executive Order's humanitarian and economic impact is real and upsetting. We benefit from what refugees and immigrants bring to the U.S. https://t.co/HdwVGzIECt
— jack (@jack) January 28, 2017
Uber investor Chris Sacca offered to help the ACLU with any legal charges incurred in their fight against making America more secure:
“Taxi…!”
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/825431544022102016
• Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was 0.5 percent. Yeah…thanks for your input Mark. We’re pretty sure everyone is aware by now of your leftist political leanings. Why didn’t you make the same proclamation when Obama banned Iraqi’s from coming to the US in 2011? No need to answer, it’s a rhetorical question…
• Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) was down 0.36 percent. Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.08% Chief Executive Reed Hastings, in reaction, said on Facebook that it had been “a very sad week.”
• Google parent Alphabet (Nasdaq; GOOGL) was down 0.44 percent.
In a staff memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move affects at least 187 of the Internet giant’s staff.
“We’re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the U.S.,” Google said in a statement. “We’ll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere.”
Companies and executives not known for speaking out on political matters, such as Nike Inc. NKE, -0.38% CEO Mark Parker, condemned the ban. In an internal letter Parker mentioned Nike athlete Sir Mo Farah, a Somali-born Olympic gold medalist now living in Oregon.
“What Mo will always have — what the entire Nike family can always count on — is the support of this company. We will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every member of our family: our colleagues, our athletes and their loved ones,” Parker’s email read.
Ford, NYSE Was down .08% Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Mark Fields
In a memo to employees, they said they do not support the ban. “Respect for all people is a core value of Ford Motor Company, and we are proud of the rich diversity of our company here at home and around the world,” they wrote.
Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent
Kent said in a statement that “the Coca Cola (CCHGY) Company is resolute in its commitment to diversity, fairness and inclusion, and we do not support this travel ban or any policy that is contrary to our core values and beliefs.”
Chobani is not traded on the stock market, but is one of the biggest advocates for importing employers to the US from Muslim majority nations to Twin Falls, ID Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya
Chobani is owned by Turkish Muslim immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya. Chobani has filled 30 percent of its 600 positions at the world’s largest Yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, with refugees resettled in America through a U.S. State Department program carried out in cooperation with the United Nations.
Ann Corcoran, author of the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, said the potential conflict of interest is disturbing and should be questioned by Twin Falls residents.
“Twin Falls is really a microcosm of what we find going on in so many of the refugee communities across the U.S., where you have people moving in and out of government and the Chamber of Commerce with a vested interest in making sure a meatpacking plant or some other industry has continuous access to refugee labor,” said Corcoran. “Only in this case we have a blatant example of conflicts of interest by an elected official who is also the head of the Chamber enticing companies to come in and make use of the steady influx of cheap, overseas labor.
“These are jobs that Americans would be happy to fill but they are forced to compete now with someone from Sudan or Iraq who is used to working for a dollar a week.”
The local Muslim community in Twin Falls grew out of its mosque and built a new, much larger house of worship last year.
Here’s Chobani CEO’s response to Trump’s moratorium on refugees from 7 countries: “This is very personal for me,” Ulukaya wrote in internal memo to his staff that was obtained by CNN. “As an immigrant who came to this country looking for opportunity, it’s very difficult to think about and imagine what millions of people around the world must be feeling right now.”
General Electric GE (NYSE) stock was down .87% CEO Jeff Immelt said, in a memo on the G (GE)employee blog, that he shares the “concern” felt by his employees and said the company has many employees from the countries named in the ban.
“These employees and customers are critical to our success and they are our friends and partners,” he wrote, adding that GE would “stand with them” and try to find a balance between security and “movement of law abiding people.”
Immelt was one of 28 business leaders named to a council to advise Trump on manufacturing growth.
Trip Advisor CEO Stephen Kaufer
Trip Advisor’s (TRIP) CEO wrote in a Linkedin post that Trump’s immigration ban is “not only heartless and discriminatory, but also against the principles that make our country great.”
Kaufer also said in a tweet that “We need to do more, not less, to help refugees,” and said the action was “wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won’t make us ‘safer.'” In a separate tweet, he called out Republican lawmakers: “You can’t sit this one out.”
We need to do more, not less, to help refugees. Trumps action was wrong on humanitarian grounds, legal grounds, and won't make us "safer."
— stephen kaufer (@kaufer) January 29, 2017
Trump hasn’t backed off his order and could change up visa programs used by high-tech companies.
