Markets Rise to New Records — Expert Says Trump Cabinet Picks Might Send Them ‘Through the Roof’
Four days before President-elect Donald Trump was elected to the White House, there was one thing most of the economic experts agreed upon: If Trump won, the markets would lose.
Pre-election forecasts included one by Citigroup of a 5 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500. Barclay’s was estimating a 13 percent drop. CMC Markets in Singapore projected the economic dismay would top that of Brexit, which led to a 5.3 percent decline in the S&P index.
As with a lot of other pre-election predictions, they got it wrong.
On Monday, for the first time in over a year, all three of the major American stock indices closed at record highs.
First they said Trump would lose
Then they said the markets would tank
Would believes the media anymore? pic.twitter.com/0raaGc5sSw
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 21, 2016
The Dow Jones industrial average went up 88 points, the NASDAQ rose 47 points and the S&P 500 climbed 16 points.
“So far, stock markets are betting that Trump’s fiscal polices, if implemented, would be bullish for stocks that have been waffling up until recently,” wrote Mark DeCambre on MarketWatch.
“The thinking is that a plan to increase infrastructure spending and cut corporate and personal income taxes will boost growth prospects, which is bullish for stocks,” he wrote.
Even the doom-and-gloom forecasters were coming around.
” … [P]resident-elect Trump has already left a significant imprint on financial markets. In contrast to many predictions before the election — including our own — and unlike the aftermath of the Brexit vote in the UK, the surprising outcome has generally lifted risky asset prices as well as nominal interest rates,” said a Goldman Sachs market letter cited by MarketWatch.
It may get even wilder.
“A name-brand Wall Street friendly Treasury secretary on top of tabbing [Mitt] Romney for state would send this market through the roof, that is if there even is a roof,” predicted Jim Cramer of CNBC, noting that the meeting between Trump and one of his fiercest foes in the GOP was a powerful signal that Trump could exceed expectations as president.
Wall Street investment banker Steve Mnuchin, who was a part of Trump’s campaign, and Rep. Jen, Hensarling, R-Texas, are considered two of the top candidates for the Treasury job, according to MarketWatch. (For more from the author of “Markets Rise to New Records — Expert Says Trump Cabinet Picks Might Send Them ‘Through the Roof'” please click HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.
