Bolstering U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds, President Donald Trump prepared to roll back regulations under Dodd-Frank and U.S. employers added the most workers in four months.
The S&P 500 Index, along with related funds including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO), were 0.7% higher Friday.
Equities markets jumped, led by financial sector stocks, on expectations that Trump will sign an executive action to scale back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I like the rollback of Dodd-Frank,” Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth, told Reuters. “It’s a net-net win for the overall financial market because these rules and regulations have meant a big increase in costs for major banks and brokerage firms.”
Trump also plans to sign another executive order at rolling back retirement savings rules that would hold brokers and financial advisors who work with tax-advantage retirement savings to a fiduciary standard.
“The fiduciary rule is a fundamental change in how brokerages do business, so if it’s now continued business as usual, that’s good for the status quo,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, told the WSJ.
Further fueling market gains, the Labor Department revealed that U.S. employers added 227,000 in payrolls, compared to estimates of a 180,000 advance, after the 157,000 rise in December, Bloomberg reports.
Trump has promised to put more people into the workforce and boost wages further through tax cuts, infrastructure investments and looser regulations.
“There’s more slack in the labor market than the unemployment rate implies, but we’re continuing to make progress in absorbing that slack,” Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc., told Bloomberg. “As that happens, wage and salary growth should gain additional traction. ”
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