Let’s take you back to those dark days of November 2016. Donald Trump had secured the Electoral College on Election Day, November 8th. Hillary Clinton conceded the election the next day. And the day after that, Trump visited President Obama at the White House.
Virtually everything after Election Day, according to the Red Hatted horde, was compliments of President-elect Trump. Remember them (and Trump) boasting “How’s your 409(k) [sic] doing?” as stocks skyrocketed, according to them.
So exactly three weeks after Election Day, have the markets embraced an upcoming Biden Administration? Oh, hell, yeah… even more than the prospective Trump Administration.
In 2016, three weeks after the election, the DJIA had increased just 4.3%. This year, three weeks after Democrat Joe Biden won the White House, it’s up more than double that: 9.5%.
The reason is simple: stability. The election of Joe Biden is the antithesis of Donald Trump. Unlike Trump, Biden hasn’t bragged about blowing up things.
His choices for key Cabinet posts are experienced, known entities. Treasury Secretary-designate Janet Yellen, a former Fed Chair, knows how to manage financial systems, unlike movie producer and investment banker Steven Mnuchin.
Biden isn’t going to try to move markets by name-dropping companies to slam them or promote them as Trump did. (Ask Carrier, Boeing and of course, the Trump properties.) Biden won’t make outrageous claims about health care, the military or international trade.
Undoubtedly, Biden’s going to take over a struggling economy, with another wave of coronavirus infections peaking and many economic programs expiring–with little likelihood that a potentially Republican-led Senate setting up roadblocks to stifle the Democrat’s progress. Success is not guaranteed.
But one thing is certain: Biden is an honest broker, something no one on Wall Street or Main Street knew about Trump–and of course, later learned that he wasn’t.