Wall Street is no longer showing Donald Trump the love.
Among the many embarrassments and failures emanating from the White House since Donald Trump moved in, one thing the former Apprentice host could rightly point to as a success has been the market rally, or Trump bump, for those who like slapping their names on things. Since Trump took office, investors have largely shown him nothing but love, pushing the market to new heights on the hope that he’ll deliver big-league on his promises of pro-growth, pro-business policies. Recently, though, that hope has begun to fade, largely on account of the G.O.P.’s failure to do the one thing they’d been talking about doing for the last seven years—repealing and replacing Obamacare. Now, despite claims from the White House that they’ll move on to tax reform and get something passed A.S.A.P., not everyone is feeling so hopeful about America’s first C.E.O. president, with the Dow falling 180 points Monday morning before recovering somewhat as the day went on. Per Bloomberg:
Investors on Monday further unwound trades initiated in November resting on the idea that the election of Donald Trump and a Republican Congress meant smooth passage of an agenda that featured business-friendly tax cuts and regulatory changes. The idea now looks flawed after the president and Republican legislators failed to proceed with health-care reform Friday.
“Although tax reform appears to have broader support and may be easier to pass, the AHCA experience sends investors a cautionary message about opposing factions within the GOP caucus,” Citigroup Inc. analysts wrote.
Bloomberg notes that “alarm bells can be heard across markets,” including the the dollar being “close to erasing a more than 6 percent rally since Trump’s election in November,” investors increasing short positions on the U.S. benchmark, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, i.e., the “fear gauge,” jumping 15 percent last week.
Meanwhile, just as the correction is happening, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin—a not insignificant figure in the ongoing tax overhaul effort—is increasingly finding himself undermined by the same inter-office turmoil that has caused problems through the Trump administration. Per Politico:
Conservatives inside and outside Treasury say the new secretary . . . is assembling a team that is too liberal and too detached from the core of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” platform of ripping up trade deals, gutting the Dodd-Frank banking rules and generally rejecting “globalism” in all its forms.
On Mnuchin’s side is former Goldman Sachs president turned National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and former Goldman partner turned deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, as well as First Daughter and Son-in-Law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who Politico notes ”are seen as having a more favorable view of international trade deals and existing relationships with foreign counterparts and a more measured approach to revamping financial regulations.” On the opposite side, you have senior advisers Steven Bannon and policy adviser Stephen Miller, who want populist, anti-everyone-else measures at best, and burn-the-whole-thing-down policies at worst. That Mnuchin has picked Craig Phillips, a Democratic donor who said at his confirmation hearing that he supports parts of the Volcker rule, which bars banks from making certain bets with their own money, is just another indication that Mnuchin is a pinko traitor who must be cut off at the knees. Surely Bannon and Miller could take his place