Trump measures himself by the stock market
Saturday marks one-year since Trump's inauguration. It's tough to imagine how anyone will survive another three years of this circus but investors should be increasingly confident of one thing: the stock market will continued to climb.
Or it least it will inasmuch as Trump can help it.
Over the past year, Trump has repeatedly pointed to the Dow Jones Industrial Average as his personal benchmark for the success of his Presidency. Aside from the shame of being a Dow Man, that's incredible news for stocks.
His fake news award yesterday underscored his obsession with stocks. He gave the top spot to Paul Krugman for writing that markets would never recover from the election.
Of course, this wasn't fake news at all. That's because it wasn't news at all, it was commentary.
But if I can set aside the absurdity of the White House (and I think investors/traders should) and focus on how to make money, the award makes it abundantly clear that he's going to judge himself of where the Dow is at the end of his term, and he will do everything in his power to make sure it's higher.
To that, David Rosenberg makes a great point:
"Do you see what happened here in the Twilight Zone? Instead of the economy driving the equity market, which was the historical experience until Alan Greenspan (and his successors) began to judge success on what the S&P 500 was doing, the equity market now drives the economy. Tax cuts all the rage. Endless central bank accommodation. Equity wealth effects. But where is the attention being made towards education, innovation, fewer trade barriers, political unity, social cohesion and labor retraining? Ultimately it is human capital that will drive growth...and one has to wonder how much of that growth is sacrificed because of the incessant near-term focus on what the major averages are doing."
He's right and one day the piper will need to be paid, but for now the trade is not to fight the Fed, Congress and the White House.
