Displaying items by tag: Trump

(New York)

Stocks woke up to a volatility explosion this morning. President Trump made a surprise announcement that he was considering boosting tariffs on China. Specifically, the president threatened to raise tariffs to 25%. Beijing is reportedly infuriated. The comments come towards the end of what seemed to be a smooth negotiation with Beijing about a new trade package. Therefore, they riled markets to a major extent. Headline indexes shed a couple percent at peak (so far) and sectors like technology and industrials sold off sharply. The trade delegation from Beijing is still expected to attended a planned tariff meeting this week.

FINSUM: It is very hard to know how significant this is (whether Trump actually wants to do this), or whether this is just a negotiating tactic.

(New York)

The trade war seems to be back on with full force. Trump spooked markets today by warning that he may impose higher tariffs on China. With that in mind, here are the stocks and sectors most at risk of big selloffs. Industrials and technology shares are the most vulnerable to tariff worries. It is difficult to say what stocks will be most affected because the potential impacts are widespread. However, the following list looks very at-risk: Colfax, Danaher, Emerson Electric, Fortive, Gates Industrial, 3M, and Kennametal.

FINSUM: We are very early in the volatility for this round of trade fears. Hopefully this minor panic will be the extent of it.

(New York)

A new poll of professional money managers has just been released, and the study shows that they think Trump is going to win in 2020. Amazingly, 67% of professional money managers say Trump will win the election versus just 28% who believe the Democratic candidate will win. What is eye-opening is that many polls outside the financial industry show the Democrats leading. Managers also scored the performance of Trump and the two chambers of Congress. Trump got the best grades of the three, but none of the scores were high.

FINSUM: This does not surprise us. All our business, both as it concerns publishing and advertising, is with professional money managers, and the one thing we know for sure is that the president has a very strong following in this community.

(Washington)

New polling data has come out since Joe Biden, former vice president, announced his candidacy. In a development that may come as a surprise, poll numbers are showing him as the Democratic front runner, unseating Bernie Sanders. 39% of Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters say he is their top choice for the candidacy. That figure is up from 28% in March.

FINSUM: It looks like Biden’s reputation hasn’t been tarnished much by the negative press lately. That said, we still favor Bernie to get the nomination on the Democratic side.

(Washington)

Attorney General Barr held a press conference this morning as a prelude the to lightly redacted Mueller report that is being released today. Generally speaking, Barr stuck to his previous summary of the report, saying there was nothing that amounted to obstruction of justice or collusion. He did give some further details, however, mentioning that there were ten instances where Mueller highlighted possible obstruction of justice. As a response to the statements, the Democrats, led by Pelosi and Schumer, are calling for Mueller himself to testify as soon as possible.

FINSUM: The political chaos about this report will not abate until the text is released and Congress and the nation hear from Mueller. We think it will happen soon.