Investors Keep Building Back (Their Portfolio) Better on Election Results

Wall Street is like your grandfather. Change is okay, so long as it comes at a glacial pace. Other than insane tax cuts for rich people or rich companies, Wall Street doesn’t like when the pendulum swings too far too soon in any direction— let alone in a more “progressive” one. Along with the better-than-expected job report (531,000 jobs were added in October alone), the fact that Democrats got their clock cleaned— even in freakin’ New Jersey! —helped spur investors confidence. To wit, Dow soared more than 200 points, or 0.6%, while Nasdaq and S&P 500 were each up 0.6% as of afternoon trading.

To be clear, in New Jersey the Democrats won the gubernatorial race by a hair. In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in state that President Biden carried relatively easily. Add to that the fact that Senate president Steve Sweeney lost to Republican Edward Durr in New Jersey of all places, and it becomes clear that it is indeed low tide for any blue wave. If you haven’t heard of Edward Durr don’t worry. No one has—who didn’t vote for him anyway. That’s because he reportedly spent under $200 on the race.

Now, whether this outcome is a good or a bad thing for the states in question is another matter. But it does seem that it was a good thing for stocks. Not necessarily because the republican candidates won, but because any fears—unfounded as they may be— of a progressive tidal wave wiping out capitalism as we know it have subsided. More than anything, markets like very little to happen politically at all, according to Jim Cramer.

“…I can tell you that the stock market loves gridlock in Washington. It loves paralysis. It loves a government that does nothing,” he said, regarding this week’s election results.

Vaccine Stupidity Also Fueled Markets This Week

Sorry, I meant vaccine “hesitancy.”  The new “gamechanger” pill by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) added to the bullish sentiment on the Street today. The experimental pill to treat Covid-19, the pharma giant, said, helped reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from coronavirus, also helped lift market sentiment. Shares of Pfizer jumped nearly 10% Friday.

This is good news, particularly for the people who won’t get vaccinated because they don’t trust the science. Of course, while a trust in science of some kind is implicit in consuming this pill (or hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin or even seeing a doctor at all for that matter), we are not concerned with these consumers’ illogic. The point here is that it will help end the pandemic, a pandemic that has been drawn out due to vaccine stup...(I mean “hesitancy”).