“We have had a very good reporting season, but…we really need the tax cuts” for equity markets to push higher, Monica Defend, head of global asset allocation research at Pioneer Investments, told the WSJ.
The markets were also relatively relaxed in light of the recent political kerfuffle after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, which added to concerns between the White House and Congress. Traders tried to assess the firing’s potential impact on Trump’s policy agenda.
“All in all, this does not support the view that the U.S. Trumpflation trade faces an easy road ahead of it,” Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group in Hong Kong, wrote in a note, according to Bloomberg. “It underlines that real surprises can pop up out of the box at any time right now.”
Dealing with replacing Comey takes Congress “further away from getting those changes” the stock market is looking for, importantly tax reforms, Jeff Zipper, managing director of investments at U.S. Bank’s Private Client Reserve in Palm Beach, told Reuters.
For more information on the markets and U.S. Stock ETFs, visit our S&P 500 category.