Plus, tech stocks swing back after falling at today’s open. And France hits Apple with a hefty fine, risking Trump’s ire. Pierre Bienaimé hosts.
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[00:00:02] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, March 31st. I'm Pierre Bien-Aimé for The Wall Street Journal. We exclusively report that President Trump's two oldest sons are investing in a Bitcoin mining company. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. launched American data centers in February. It will merge with and take a 20% stake in a new company, American Bitcoin, controlled by the publicly traded Hut8. The move adds to the first family's expanding portfolio of cryptocurrency businesses.
[00:00:32] U.S. tech stocks opened significantly lower, but the Nasdaq rallied in the afternoon. The day capped a turbulent quarter for markets, in which the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq saw their biggest quarterly losses since 2022. On the IPO front, Newsmax stock skyrocketed in its public market debut. Shares of the media company surged 735%, to around $83.50 a share. Trading was halted multiple times during the session due to volatility.
[00:01:01] And France's competition regulator has fined Apple $162 million over concerns the company abused its dominant position in mobile apps through the privacy measures it imposes on developers. The regulator said that Apple's own services don't face the same restrictions, giving the company an unfair advantage. An Apple spokesperson said the company's system gives users more control of their privacy by mandating that developers issue a prompt to ask permission to track data.
[00:01:29] The spokesperson added that Apple has received strong support for the feature from consumers, privacy advocates, and data protection authorities. President Trump has openly criticized the European Union for fining companies like Apple for antitrust infringements, saying they amount to a taxation. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast. For more information, visit www.fema.org.