As of roughly 2 PM American Central, the big 3 stock market indices are down anywhere from 1.3% to 2%. Perhaps it’s a bit of buyers’ remorse after a long, long run.
Or maybe it’s this:
President Donald Trump — poised to approve the release of a classified memo about the Russia investigation — on Friday ripped the ongoing probe, accusing top law enforcement officials of favoring Democrats.
“The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans — something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago,” Trump tweeted. “Rank & File are great people!” he added. [NBC News]
Openly accusing the very officials he selected[1] to run the agencies of being in open and illegal revolt against him – with no evidence, to boot. It’s tempting to connect market behavior with this new low in intra-government relations.
But I don’t necessarily give investors that much credit. After all, the markets didn’t come crashing down when Trump won election, did they? They – the investors, collectively – chose to believe there’d be a steady hand at the helm. A fair enough position, too.
But with Trump continually failing to be President in a responsible and positive manner has been rattling the world, and this may be the next group to be rattled. The next week will tell us how investors are really feeling. Can’t come to conclusions on this single data point.
1These would be Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The former is definitely a Republican, and reportedly the latter voted in the latest GOP Presidential primary, while declining to vote in the election.
