Currently there is a fierce battle going on between the two candidates for President. Many would agree that this has been one of the most unconventional, interesting, wild, and unpredictable presidential election cycles ever. Article after article has been written about the "mud-slinging" that has transpired over the last year and a half. This will certainly be made into a movie one day.
Aside from the embarrassment that we Americans feel for how our country has been represented, many have noticed that there are a few things missing from each candidate. You see, in a normal election cycle, sure you will have some drama, and irrelevant comments made, but then usually we get back to specifics on each candidates stance. This time around, however we have not seen that. About 90% of the time the two candidates spend their time fighting with each other like siblings, while around 10% of the time has there been actual, quality specifics about their policies.
We're here to talk about the markets though, so how does Wall Street like each candidate, and how do they decide if there have been very little specifics mentioned? If you weren't sure, you could definitely tell by the price movement of the market.
The day after the first presidential debate it was widely reported that Hilary Clinton won. Very few would say that Trump was the actual winner. The markets finished very strong that day, with all the major indices up over a half a percent. Now, that's just one example, do we have another?
The second Presidential debate was held on a Sunday so we start by looking at the futures market. As the debate came to an end, the markets were up about a quarter percent. By the end of Monday the markets had once again finished with a strong +0.50% day. On both days following the debate there was no meaningful, scheduled news. This shows that Clinton is Wall Street's favorite.
Of course there are numerous instances where Clinton showed favor to Wall Street, but no instance of Trump ever being in a position to help or hurt Wall Street. So, to be fair, we wont say that Wall Street doesn't like Trump, its that, with Clinton they know what they get. With Trump no one knows.