Even before the election is settled, some themes are emerging about what it will mean for the American economy. And on Wall Street, there’s a growing bet that the country will get a smaller stimulus bill than some had hoped for, and that taxes are unlikely to increase.
Traders were in a buoyant mood earlier this week, seemingly positioning for a clear US election outcome and even a strong showing from Democrats that could pave the wave for robust economic stimulus. That’s not what has happened so far.
As Americans vote in record numbers to choose the next US president, they might be braced for a contested election that drags on for weeks. But professional traders, for the most part, are positioned for a clear outcome.
XTX Markets doesn’t have any human traders. But it does have human venture capitalists.
From Frankfurt to New York, stock markets have had a grizzly week. Their decline reflects growing concern that the nascent economic recovery could stumble.
An uncontained pandemic. A shrinking economy. What could corporate executives possibly be excited about?
David Ellison has been managing investments for three decades, and these days he focuses on financial company stocks. When I spoke with him last week, there was one IPO on his mind: “I’m hoping to buy some of this Ant Financial, if I can,” said Ellison, a portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Boston. “It’s the Amazon of financial services.”
Last year, hundreds of thousands of people—from students to retirees—joined immense demonstrations in the UK, calling for the country to cut its carbon emissions to battle the threat of climate change. Their sheer numbers showed a swelling commitment to the cause.
America’s largest banks are steeled for a wave of loan defaults and missed payments that still haven’t arrived. Thanks to an initially immense amount of support from Washington, that pain appears to have been pushed out to next year.
Retirement savers may never have had it more difficult.
Wall Street traders think a contested US presidential election is becoming less likely, as polls suggest Democratic candidate Joe Biden is increasing his lead over president Donald Trump.
Shares of Regeneron are soaring after the US president Donald Trump, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, touted its drugs on Twitter. He named the biotech company repeatedly in a video post, saying its experimental antibody cocktail “was, like, unbelievable” and that the government aimed to make it available for free to Americans who need it.
China is pouring cash into infrastructure, from green energy projects to electrical grids and airports, in an array of stimulus measures that are rippling through global financial markets. It’s similar to the playbook China used after the last global recession.
The debate over shareholder versus stakeholder capitalism has been going on for decades, and it has been especially fraught in recent years.
Stock markets from Tokyo to Sydney fell after US president Donald Trump and his wife Melania tested positive for Covid-19. The diagnosis raises questions about the course of a presidential election that’s only a month away.
Tech unicorns Palantir and Asana joined the public markets yesterday (Sept. 30) using direct listings, which are seen as a challenge to the traditional process for initial public offerings. The results suggest direct listings could become more commonplace.
The US presidential election may not turn out to be a done deal on Nov. 3, but Wall Street thinks the turmoil will be short lived.
What pandemic?
Unemployment hurts, and it’s not just about the money.
The US executive branch has seen a lot in the past couple of centuries: assassinations, resignations, contested elections. But what would happen if the president was voted out of office and refused to leave?
Britain is leaning into the type of worker policies that are widely used in the rest of Europe, and standing even further apart from the US when it comes to protecting society from a wave of unemployment.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for digital payments, inspiring legions of people to buy more things online and to use contactless payments. But the pandemic has also cemented cash’s importance as a store of value.
A handful of companies are thriving in the post-Covid world. Apple. Amazon. Zoom. And then there’s Robinhood. If you had asked in 2019 who the winners might be in an economy-shattering pandemic, who would have guessed a retail brokerage app? Welcome to 2020.
Nvidia’s planned planned acquisition of Arm Holdings is the biggest semiconductor deal in history. Yet, one of the surprises about Arm’s $40 billion valuation is how small it is.
