Alphabet shares close lower on Friday, Google to dissolve Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC)

Last week Alphabet Inc’s Google announced that it would dismiss the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council, which it had formed on March 26th to deal with ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Alphabet shares closed lower for the first time in the past six trading sessions on NASDAQ on Friday. It has also been the steepest daily loss since March 27th. The stock went down 0.65% ($7.85) to $1,207.15, after touching an intraday high at $1,216.22, or a price level not seen since April 3rd ($1,216.30).

Shares of Alphabet Inc have risen 16.56% so far in 2019 compared with a 15.39% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2018, Alphabet’s stock went down 1.03%, thus, it again outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.

The 8-member council, comprised of technology experts and digital ethicists, was supposed to provide recommendations for business organizations and researchers, engaged in fields such as facial recognition software. The latter has already raised concerns about racial bias and other limitations.

According to a report by on-line news portal Vox, a petition has been signed by Google employees requesting one of the ATEAC members to be removed due to comments regarding transsexual people.

“It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted. So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board,” a Google representative said in an emailed statement, cited by Reuters.

According to CNN Money, the 37 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Alphabet Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $1,350.00, with a high estimate of $1,500.00 and a low estimate of $1,100.00. The median estimate represents an 11.83% upside compared to the closing price of $1,207.15 on April 5th.

The same media also reported that 38 out of 44 surveyed investment analysts had rated Alphabet Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 2 – as “Hold”.

Weekly Pivot Levels

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Alphabet Inc (GOOG) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $1,201.82
R1 – $1,221.63
R2 – $1,236.12
R3 – $1,255.93
R4 – $1,275.75

S1 – $1,187.33
S2 – $1,167.52
S3 – $1,153.03
S4 – $1,138.55