Do Politics Impact the Market?

It’s a good question we’ve received countless times this fall: How would a possible change of control in the White House and the Senate impact the markets after the election? Chief Investment Officer Jim Lowell discussed the effects of politics on the economy, the markets and what we’re watching for in our recent webinar,* Looking Beyond the Election to the Recovery’s Future.

Please enjoy the excerpt below and click here for the full webinar replay to hear more.

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Jim Lowell:
Hopefully, we will have a clear and distinct election outcome and can move forward as a nation, with at least one major source of uncertainty that’s cast a pall over the economy and the market behind us rather than ahead of us. Certainly, if we saw a White House and Senate control fall to just one of the parties, that typically means that we would see a little bit more nervousness come into the marketplace on the assumption that there could be some pretty extreme swings in either direction.

Jim Lowell:
Usually, the market rewards gridlock more than either extreme. So, I would say that while this question is the right one to ask, we really will have to see what transpires come November 4. One would assume, however, that no matter which party wins, we are going to need to see another massive round of stimulus spending, and we’re hopeful—and we’ve been noting this for some time—that it will come down the pike in the form of infrastructure spending that would help to create jobs, an economy that’s working. We think we’re in an economy that’s in slow-recovery, not no-recovery mode, and that rewards people no matter what their political interests and affiliations. That’s something I think we could all vote for.

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Click here for a replay of Looking Beyond the Election to the Recovery’s Future. Please contact us at (800) 492-6868 to learn more about comprehensive wealth management solutions.