By Jon S. Strebler

 

We read this kind of silliness when the stock market is really bullish, especially during the third psychological phase of a bull market. During that phase, stocks have discounted the likely impact of positives acting upon stock prices, and then take it further by predicting favorable developments that aren’t so likely – along with ignoring unfavorable things that eventually do happen. Thus, the third phase of a bull market is a speculative one, when stocks move higher in nearly parabolic fashion, to prices that are unjustified and unsustainable. 

by Jon S. Strebler

 

I’m not the only one out there that thinks the election of Donald Trump as the next President signals a big break with the past – a new time, if you will. Sure, we hear a lot of “well, he’s different, but we have checks and balances, and in four (or eight) more years, he’ll be gone and the country ­­­­will just move in the next direction, no worse for wear.” I doubt it. Whether you think Trump is the scum of the earth or America’s knight on a white horse, we’ve never seen anything like him. His influence will be broad and long-lasting, and probably in ways people haven’t even realized yet.

by Jon S. Strebler

 

That’s what Wall Street seems to be thinking and doing the past few weeks. Donald Trump will become President in January, and he will immediately start making a great many changes that will benefit businesses and investors. The two largest areas of such change will be in reducing regulations on business, and increasing government spending, most notably on the nation’s infrastructure. Trump’s election being such a surprise to Wall Street, it was caught flat-footed and is now surging to reflect how this new era and pro-business atmosphere will impact bottom lines. Dollars are flowing into US stocks by the tens of billions, with no end in sight as nobody wants to be left out. Wall Street is going ALL IN on Trump.

By Jon S. Strebler

 

It turns out that President-elect Donald Trump is a typical politician after all, at least in some respects. That notably includes saying one thing on the campaign trail and then doing something different after he’s in office – or in Trump’s case, even before he takes office. There’s the whole “Lock her up!” thing of throwing Hillary Clinton in jail, now no longer a concern. The “Climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese” claim -- now Trump says he has an open mind on the topic. And Nikki Haley, who formerly was “an embarrassment to the people of South Carolina,” will soon be our next ambassador to the UN. Well again, this flip-flopping is typical politician behavior, and simply evidence that Trump indeed knows how the game is played.