Mark Cuban Talks Trump, Tariffs and the Facebook Scandal
(Kitco News) - Stocks were higher Monday as White House Economic Advisor,Larry Kudlow continued to soften the White House’s tone regarding traderelations, noting the intention is not to enter a trade war.
When pressed on the free trade topic, tech billionaire MarkCuban said the tariff talks are just another example of taming Trump.
“I’ll tell you what this reminds me of: there are alwaysgoing to be salespeople who always oversell and then someone has to go in andclean it up.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the Three Sharks in a CastleSymposium in Toronto last week, Cuban told Kitco News that he takes everythingPresident Donald Trump says on trade with a grain of salt.
“It obviously upsets a lot of people, particularly people inthose industries -- but in his history, since he has taken over -- what he saysand what actually is implemented have actually not been the same thing,” Cubansaid.
Adding, “Because of who he is and the title, we have to talkabout it, but I won’t be concerned about the language and hyperbole until itactually happens.”
The S&P 500 posted strong gains Monday, up 1% in thefinal hour of the trading day, last trading at 2632 points. Markets havereacted positively to easing rhetoric around the trade tariffs proposed byPresident Donald Trump, as well as high hopes for a strong start to earningsseason.
Cuban was speaking ahead of the U.S. earnings season whichkicks off this Friday with three major banks -- JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), CitiGroup (NYSE: C), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) -- on tap to release theircorporate numbers.
According to FactSet, earnings growth for the S&P 500 isexpected to increase 17.1%, the highest earnings growth since Q1 2011.
Cuban said that he expects to see a solid earnings season.
“I think earnings will be good...I think Amazon will have alot to prove because I think it is still the world’s best startup; they investin new things and push things in great directions,” adding that his two mostprominent holdings are in the e-commerce giant followed by the streaming titanNetflix (Nasdaq: NFLX).
Regarding the recent scandal over Facebook data being usedby British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for political purposes, Cubansaid harvesting users' data might be our new normal.
“It’s the users’ choice -- you have a choice to participate-- you don’t have to be on Facebook, that said, you create gigabytes of dataevery day: when you walk down the street with your phone on, you are creatingdata; when you connect to Wi-Fi, text, send an email, etc. So if you areconcerned about data then you really need to educate yourself,” Cuban said.
But it’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to theinvesting maven. “It simplifies your life -- the data you create that is beingreused, some people think misused can be used for the better -- it can simplifyyour choices on Amazon, for example,” Cuban said.
By Daniela CamboneFor Kitco News
Follow @DanielaCambone
dcambone@kitco.comwww.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.