Source: YouTube screenshot on NBR
Financial Sense just spoke with Raymond James’ Chief Investment Strategist, Jeffrey Saut, to get his take on the Trump win and Republican takeover of Congress. Here’s what he had to say:
“Not only did the Republicans win the White House and Congress but they basically swept the three branches of government because the Republicans are now going to get to appoint the Supreme Court Judges that come up for replacement…
There are going to be policy shifts but you're not going to know what a Trump US presidential election is going to hold for the rest of the world—it's not going to be clear for a long time but I suspect that those fears and the reality is going to be much smaller than many fear.
I think Donald Trump will moderate his stance on a lot of things just like he did on his acceptance speech last night as far as protectionism goes. I think Trump will roll back his more extreme policy statements and the fact of the matter is that there are only a handful of economies—most notably, Mexico—that are very vulnerable to US protectionism…
I went back in my notes and…there is not an instance that I can find where you’ve had a Republican in the White House and Republican House and Senate where the stock market has not done pretty well. If he (Trump) does get to cut corporate taxes to 15%—if you run the numbers on that—that could boost S&P earnings by 18%, making the estimates that S&P has for next year more realizable…
I think (a Trump win) is a tailwind. I think less regulation and rolling back some of the executive orders that were done by fiat—without Congressional approval—are bullish…
If you cut the corporate tax rate to 15%—if you run through the numbers—it implies an 18% increase in S&P dividends. So I think there are a number of tailwinds that are going to be brought in by a Trump presidency and, let me be the first to say, I was as shocked as everybody else that turned the TV on this morning.”
In the rest of the interview, Saut says what he thinks a Trump win means for specific market sectors and various asset classes and where he's investing his money currently.
Subscribers can access this full podcast interview Thursday by logging in and visiting the Newshour page. For subscription information, click here.
