Displaying items by tag: senate

(Washington)

There has been a lot of speculation that the midterm elections could cause a big problem for markets. If the Democrats sweep into congress, causing a major power shift, many worry markets might crumple. However, the reality is that the most likely outcome—a blue House and Red Senate—would actually be bullish for stocks. One analyst who specializes in political-driven investing says that investors would be relieved to have a split Congress. If somehow both chambers go blue, then there would likely be a selloff in bonds, stocks, and the Dollar, but even that might prove a buying opportunity as Democrats “are not unified around anything”.

FINSUM: Depending on the election’s outcome, different sectors are going to see different results, as some are blue-positive (like auto suppliers, homebuilders, hospitals etc), while others are red-positive (like biotech, banking, credit cards, and defense).

(Washington)

The saga of the fiduciary rule seems to be never ending. Odysseas had an easier time. Now, just when things were starting to look clear—the DOL rule is effectively gone and the SEC has proposed a new one—everything is murky again. A senior figure, Michael Piwowar, at the SEC has just resigned. According to InvestmentNews, “Mr. Piwowar’s departure could significantly delay a rulemaking that already was projected to last for months — or make it impossible to complete”. Piwowar was a major ally of SEC chief Clayton, and now there are an equal number of Democrats to Republicans on the SEC commission. Trump could try to replace Piwowar and Democrat Kara Stein (whose term has lapsed) all at once, but the Senate would need to fast track approval.

FINSUM: Even if everything gets fast-tracked by Trump, the Senate needs to get the approval done, and that very well may not happen soon, especially because the Democrats might take the Senate back.

(New York)

One of the big overarching questions regarding the Mueller probe over the last few weeks has been two-part: will Trump try to fire Mueller, and will the Senate step in to protect Mueller from said firing. Well, one half of the answer is now clear. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has made clear that the Senate will take no action to protect Mueller from whatever moves Trump might make. McConnell said “I am the one who decides what we take to the floor … That’s my responsibility as majority leader. And we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate”.

FINSUM: The one Caveat here is that McConnell thought he said protecting Mueller was unnecessary because he did not believe Trump would try to fire him, which slightly leaves the door open to a change of position.

(Washington)

This weekend saw President Trump escalate his attacks on Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation. Trump and his lawyers launched a public campaign to condemn the investigation which included Trump’s first tweets targeting Mueller by name. Trump tweeted that the investigation “should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime”, saying that the Mueller investigation was being led by “hardened Democrats” intent on taking down the Republican president. Trump’s more aggressive stance than in previous months led to several warnings from senators on both sides of the aisle that he should not try to end the investigation.

FINSUM: One keeps wondering if some bombshell accusation is going to arise from this investigation or whether it will end up being a long waste of time.