National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said stock-market investors are apparently ignoring any White House political turbulence because the robust economy is proof President Donald Trump's strategy is working.
The bull market on Wall Street set history this week when it eclipsed the S&P 500's all-time high despite Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's one-time campaign manager, being found guilty Tuesday on multiple fraud counts, while longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to tax fraud and making an illegal campaign contribution.
The veteran financial guru and former Ronald Reagan adviser, in an exclusive interview Wednesday with CNBC.com, said a thriving economy is overcoming those issues.
"The economy's everything when it comes to markets and confidence, and I think that markets frankly look through all these various political issues," said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
"There's no change in policy coming, that's what really matters. Keep your eye on the ball, and I think the markets have done a good job," said Kudlow, who worked as Reagan’s budget deputy between 1981 and 1985.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/22/kudlow-on-why-the-stock-market-is-ignoring-cohen-manafort-news.html
To be sure, the U.S. economy looks set to forge ahead as fresh reservoirs of domestic demand carry it past turbulence overseas, keeping the Federal Reserve on course for further interest-rate hikes, Bloomberg has reported.
Households have more cash to spend than thought, thanks to newly discovered pools of savings and Trump’s big tax cuts. Firms are ramping up production and rebuilding inventories after running them down by the most since 2009. And government spending finally looks set to swell, after Congress opened the floodgates in March with a $1.3 trillion package.
The result, some economists say: Growth in the second half of 2018 could clock in at 3 percent or more. While that would be slower than the second quarter’s 4.1 percent pace, it would be enough to make the entire year’s performance the best since 2005, when gross domestic product climbed 3.5 percent.
“It’s a green ‘go’” for the economy, said Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics Inc. in New York, who sees GDP expanding 3.1 percent this year.
Wednesday on Wall Street, the S&P 500's bull market turned 3,453 days old, making it the longest such streak in history, according to some investors' definition, Reuters explained.
The benchmark stock index was off 0.13 percent in midmorning trading, and the market took the milestone in stride a day after the S&P 500 set an all-time intraday high that slightly exceeded the previous one set in late January.
“Length is not necessarily thing I’m interested in. More so it could be the new high for the year,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading, in Chatham, New Jersey.
Wall Street is widely considered to be in a bull market that started on March 9, 2009, when investors grappled with the global financial crisis that had vaporized over half of the U.S. stock market’s value. Since then, the index has more than quadrupled.
Now after nine years and five months, investors are debating when, not if, the current run-up in stock prices will end.
Material from Bloomberg and Reuters were used in this report.
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