Few were surprised when US stocks jumped after Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election. Amid widespread assumptions of weeks of uncertainty, a clear result was always likely to prompt an initial relief rally. More unexpected was what has happened since.
The president-elect has nominated a string of hardliners to senior positions, signalling his intent to push ahead with a radical agenda to enact sweeping tariffs and deport millions of illegal immigrants that many economists warn would cause inflation and deficits to spiral upward.
Yet the stock market — the economic barometer most closely watched by the general public, and one often referenced by Trump himself — seems to have shown little sign of concern.