(MarketWatch) What’s pummeling financial markets this week?
Fears about the spread of coronavirus, to be sure. But a chorus of analysts also thinks concerns about Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic presidential nomination — and possibly even the presidency — are also contributing to jitters.
“The risk to US stocks is pretty significant if Bernie gets the nomination,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst with OANDA. “I think there is concern that in some of these battleground states Bernie is beating Trump. If he does maintain that momentum, it would be very concerning to Wall Street.”
There’s a long way to go before November. Sarah Bianchi, Evercore ISI’s head of U.S. public policy and political strategy research put it in a Monday note, “If there is anything we have learned in this political environment, it is that things can change really fast. And, of course, if there is something to remind us that the unpredictable can happen, it is the last time we went through a Presidential election, where few thought President Trump would win.”
Bianchi plans on watching Tuesday night’s South Carolina debates closely to see if any of the other Democrats can “slow the Sanders primary sweep,” as well as “any signs of alliances or consolidation in the moderate/non-Sanders lane that can make it a force to compete against Sanders.”
The debate comes amid growing fears about the spread of the coronavirus beyond China, which has resulted in more than 80,000 cases and 2,700 deaths and begun to seriously rattle global stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.59% was trading down more than 300 points Tuesday, a day after U.S. stocks suffered their worst day in two years.
Trump Warns Stock Market Will Crash if He Isn’t Re-Elected
(TheStreet) Speaking to a group of businessmen while on a trip to India, President Trump warns of a dire future if he isn’t back in the White House next January…
Trump said that the U.S. stock market will crash if he loses next year, Reuters reported.
“If I don’t win you’re going to see a crash like you’ve never seen before,” Trump told business leaders during his trip to India.
To help goose the economy, Trump said that his administration planned to announce tax cuts for the middle class “in the not too distant future,” Reuters reported. The Trump tax cuts in 2017 are often credited with helping to propel the major stock market indexes to multiple record highs over the past three years.
The Dow suffered its worst loss in two years on Monday in what was only the third 1,000-point decline in its history.
