Displaying items by tag: Trump

(Washington)

There is a currently a great deal of anxiety over the election. It is not just political either—a Democrat or Republican win would create drastically different economic environments, which will lead to very different returns. One prominent hedge fund manager commented on the whole situation, saying “I think we all wish that we could kind of go back to thinking about investing without political risks”. Despite this longing, it is clear that we will not go back to that era anytime soon. Accordingly, check out these stocks, which should thrive no matter if Trump or a far-left Democrat wins the bid. Healthcare and tech look like big risks, but interestingly, large oil companies may be a good bet. If Warren wins and bans fracking, oil prices are likely to rise, helping large integrated oil companies. Another approach is to focus on stocks that will benefit from government plans that are already happening, such as those related to state infrastructure spending, legalized sports gambling, and shipping fuel standards.

FINSUM: We are still a year out from the election, but it is certainly worth thinking about how to position the portfolio, as polls leading up to the big day will move markets a lot.

(Beijing)

Investors have been jolly lately about the progress made in the trade war. Ever since Trump’s announcement of a “phase 1” deal a few weeks ago, trade war concern has been diminishing, with markets rising accordingly. However, there was a reality check today as China made worrying comments, saying that they don’t think any long-term/substantial deal would be possible with Trump, and that they are even worried about him backing out of a simple short-term deal because of his “impulsive nature” (from Bloomberg).

FINSUM: Talk about throwing cold water on something. That said, none of these comments—positive or negative—mean too much. What ends up on paper matters more.

(Washington)

Between all the whistleblowers, and the questions over whether they actually had first hand knowledge, the ongoing impeachment inquiry centered on Trump’s phone call with Ukraine has become more confusing by the day. However, fresh news today has added weight to the situation. In particular, career US envoy to Ukraine William Taylor gave a deposition to the House inquiry which stated that Trump made the payment of US security assistance to Ukraine explicitly tied to the Ukrainian president opening a public investigation into Biden. Taylor says that in exchange for the aid to Ukraine, “President Trump did insist that President Zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelensky should want to do this himself”.

FINSUM: Regardless of your position on this, Taylor’s testimony adds a lot of weight to the situation, as this is no longer an anonymous whistleblower. The impeachment inquiry just got more serious.

(Washington)

House Speaker Nany Pelosi made big waves yesterday when she announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, all stemming from the alleged Ukrainian incident. The political implications are one aspect, but what does this mean for the stock market? The answer is that nobody knows. Nixon’s impeachment process saw a big loss in stocks, but it was also the Oil Crisis; while Clinton’s impeachment was quite positive for equities. Each situation was completely unique, as was the market environment at the time.

FINSUM: Our best guess is that this won’t do much to stocks, mostly because there has been so much political theater over the last few years that, for better or worse, this likely just seems to be more of the same for investors.

(Washington)

So one thing is very obvious about Trump’s tweets—they can move markets. However, what is less well-known is that their frequency also has an effect on indexes. So how do markets fare on days when Trump is hammering out tweet after tweet versus days when he only pens a few? The answer is that more is worse. On days where Trump write 35 tweets or more there is a 9 basis point drag on markets versus days where he tweets 5 times or less, where there is a 5 basis point tailwind.

FINSUM: There is not much one can do with this info, but it is an interesting data point. How long before a new “smart beta” product comes out focused on this? Haha.