Billionaire Investor Scott Bessent: Stock Market ‘Looking Forward’ to Trump Victory in 2024

Trump Stock Market

Scott Bessent, billionaire investor and founder of Key Square Capital Management Fund, joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss how the stock market’s rally coincides with former President Donald Trump being ahead in the 2024 presidential election polls.

In a letter to investors, which was recently leaked to Bloomberg, Bessent’s Key Square Capital Management Fund said it believes that equity markets are “in the midst of a ‘Trump Rally’ that will last as long as he remains ahead of Biden in the polls.”

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JPMorgan Strategists Predict Stock Plunge, Recession as Early as First Half of 2023

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase predicted a recession as soon as the first half of 2023, coupled with a major stock market slide, in a research note Thursday, according to Bloomberg.

The strategists expected the S&P 500 stock index to decline roughly 12% in the first half of next year, before rebounding to end 2023 up 3% as inflation cools and the Federal Reserve slows or reverses its aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes, Bloomberg reported. Despite the expectation that the stock market will rebound by the end of next year, the analysts anticipated that U.S. corporate earnings would fall roughly 9% as demand slumps and economic conditions limit companies’ ability to set higher prices.

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Sen. Blumenthal’s Family Splurged on Intel Stock Before He Voted for a Massive Subsidy Bill

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal disclosed in early March that an investment fund managed by his wife’s family purchased between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Intel stock. A little over three weeks later, he voted for legislation handing billions in subsidies to semiconductor manufacturers that could benefit Intel.

The senator’s actions seem to indicate a conflict of interest, congressional watchdogs told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Blumenthal’s financial interests appear intertwined with companies he oversees, they said.

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Stock Market Sinks, Oil Tops $130 as West Considers Russian Energy Sanctions

oil fields

The stock market dropped during early trading Monday after the U.S. benchmark oil index briefly touched its highest level since the Great Recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index measuring 30 major U.S. corporations, dropped 0.94% as of early Monday. The S&P index, which measures 500 of the largest publicly-traded companies, fell more than 0.93% while the NASDAQ, an index largely comprised of technology firms, declined 0.98%.

Late Sunday, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures hit more than $130 per barrel for the first time since July 2008. The index remained high on Monday, hovering above $118 per barrel, up more than 3%.

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U.S. Home Sales Continued to Grow in October as Housing Market Remains Hot

A beige house in a suburban community during the day

Home sales in the U.S. grew in October as buyers continue to enter a hot market, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Existing home sales increased at the fastest pace since January, growing 0.8% in October from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.34 million, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. October home sales declined 5.8% compared to the figure in October 2020, with the inventory of unsold homes decreasing 12% to 1.25 million on a year-over-year basis.

“Home sales remain resilient, despite low inventory and increasing affordability challenges,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in the report. “Inflationary pressures, such as fast-rising rents and increasing consumer prices, may have some prospective buyers seeking the protection of a fixed, consistent mortgage payment.”

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Stock Market Nosedives as Massive Sell-Off Continues

Major stock market indices plummeted Monday in a continuing sell-off tied to China’s declining property value, increasing COVID-19 cases and lack of progress in Congress on increasing the debt limit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), an index measuring 30 major U.S. corporations, dropped 1.78% on Monday. The S&P index, which measures 500 of the largest publicly traded companies, fell 1.7%, while the NASDAQ, an index composed largely of technology firms, declined 2.19%.

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Commentary: ‘Follow the Science’ with Dr. Fauci

No matter what we are told by the “experts,” science is constantly evolving and is rarely ever as settled as those in power want us to believe. Doctors are often forced to make consequential decisions and recommendations based on partial or incomplete sets of data and information. Perhaps no one knows this better than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

According to Fauci, it is now safe for schools to reopen. All it took was the passing of President Biden’s “COVID relief bill,” which will likely be signed into law this week. “As we now have the relief bill signed at $1.9 trillion — a lot of that is going into addressing COVID-19 including help to the schools to allow them to more safely bring the kids back,” Fauci said on Monday. Considering that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 95 percent of the money appropriated from the bill to fund schools will not be spent this year, there was no reason for Fauci to present its passing as a prerequisite for reopening schools — unless of course we fool ourselves into believing that he is motivated by science, and not by whatever the Biden administration tells him to say.

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GameStop Revolt Redditors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Robinhood for Cutting off Access to the Market as Hedge Fund Losses Mount

by Andrew Kerr   A class-action lawsuit filed against the investing app Robinhood on Thursday just hours after it prohibited its users from purchasing GameStop stock is unlikely to be successful in court, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. And federal regulators with the Securities and Exchange Commission are going to have a hard time proving that the millions of retail investors from the Reddit forum WallStreetBets who forced a monumental short squeeze on GameStop, causing the company’s price to skyrocket nearly 1,500% in January, violated any securities laws, the experts said. “They may be ganging up, but it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of material misrepresentations being made. And the SEC’s standard modus operandi is to go after people who are making material misrepresentations,” University of Michigan Law professor Adam Pritchard told the DCNF. “These people may just be stupid. But there are a bunch of them and they’re encouraging each other. It’s not a crime to be stupid.” GameStop’s price explosion in January was made possible because hedge funds and other institutional investors had shorted 140% of the company’s existing shares. When an investor shorts a stock, they’re betting that the security will decrease…

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Analysis: Jobs, Housing Show Recovery Continues

There were only two insightful reports on the economy this past week—for jobs and housing. Both show impressive gains.

Weekly initial unemployment claims fell by 56,000, to 787,000. They are down more than 100,000 from a month ago. There has also been a substantial decline in the insured unemployment rate to 5.7 percent from 8.7 percent a month ago. Also, the number of people receiving unemployment insurance payments fell to 8.4 million; it was 12.6 million a month ago.

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Recovery Continues, Economy Should be Back to Peak in Fourth Quarter

The rapid recovery from the lockdown continues. Economic reports from September indicate the economy has rebounded to 97 percent of its peak reached this past February. The surge in new orders for both manufacturing and service companies points to further gains in the months ahead.

These gains should bring the economy’s output and spending (GDP) back to its prior peak during the fourth quarter of the year.

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Critics Say $40B IPO Could Subsidize China’s Human Rights Abuses, Risk National Security

Some China observers are wary of a potential $40 billion initial public offering (IPO) by tech giant Ant Technology Group, saying the funds could underwrite China’s human rights abuses and risk U.S. national security.

The Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) is urging the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, U.S. investment banks and the Trump administration to block the Ant Group IPO, which could be the largest IPO in history.

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Tech Drives Indexes Higher on Wall Street after Choppy Start

Big technology companies powered stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, adding to the market’s gains after a three-week winning streak.

The S&P 500 rose 0.84% after being down 0.3% in the early going. Gains by technology and communication stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending outweighed losses elsewhere in the market. The rally, which gained strength in the final hour of trading, nudged the benchmark S&P 500 index to a slight gain for the year and drove the Nasdaq composite to an all-time high.

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Tech Leads the Way as US Stocks Head for a Third Month of Gains

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Tuesday, extending the market’s recent winning streak after another strong showing by technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and is on pace for its third straight monthly gain. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, climbed to an all-time high for the second day in a row. Bond yields rose, another sign of increasing confidence in the economy.

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Stock Indexes Move Higher on Wall Street After a Shaky Start

Stock indexes are higher on Wall Street in choppy trading Monday as investors weigh the risks that rising coronavirus cases could pose to hopes for an economic recovery.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in midday trading after an initial slide of 0.6% following weakness in overseas markets as the global tally of infections approaches 9 million. The price of gold rose, a signs of caution in the market. Bond yields were mixed.

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Stocks Rally Worldwide on Hopes for Coming Economic Recovery

Stocks rose again Tuesday, part of a strong and worldwide rally for markets, after a big rebound in buying at U.S. stores and online raised hopes that the economy can escape its recession relatively quickly.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.9% for its third straight gain, bringing it back within 8% of its record set in February. Gains have built in recent weeks as reports bolster investor expectations that the worst of the downturn may have already passed.

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Wall Street Veers Higher on Fed Plan to Buy Corporate Bonds

Stocks swung solidly higher on Wall Street in afternoon trading Monday after the Federal Reserve said it would begin buying individual corporate bonds, the central bank’s latest move to prop up volatile financial markets through the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P 500 was up 1% after being down as much as 2.5% shortly after trading began in New York. The gains followed sharp losses in Asia and more moderate ones in Europe. Worries were on the rise that new waves of coronavirus infections around the world could derail the swift economic recovery that Wall Street had seemed sure just a week ago was on the way.

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Stocks Bounce Higher on Wall Street a Day After Big Rout

New York Stock Exchange

Stocks moved higher on Wall Street in afternoon trading Friday, recouping some of their losses a day after the market had its biggest rout since mid-March.

The S&P 500 was up 0.7% a day after dropping 5.9%. The benchmark index is still headed for a weekly loss following three weeks of solid gains. Small-company stocks and bond yields moved broadly higher, signs that pessimism about the economy was easing.

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Wall Street’s Rally Zooms Higher After Surprise Gain in Jobs

Stocks are rushing higher in morning trading Friday after a much better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market gave Wall Street’s recent rally another shot of adrenaline.

The S&P 500 was up 2.2% after the government said that U.S. employers added 2.5 million workers to their payrolls last month. Economists were expecting them instead to slash another 8 million jobs amid the recession caused by the coronavirus and the shutdowns put in place to stem it.

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The Tennessee Star Report: Online Trading Expert Adam Darwish Talks About How the Stock Market Works and the Effects of a Looming Impeachment

Live from music row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy spoke to Adam Darwish who is the Education Director and Senior Education Counselor for the Trading Academy in Nashville. Darwish talked about how the stock market embraces volatility and that many traders are not worried about impeachment because they don’t think it will pass the Senate.

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SEC Transaction Fee Pilot Program Could Save Big Money for Small Investors, Pensioners

SEC building

By Robert Romano   In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a new transaction fee pilot that would “subject stock exchange transaction fee pricing, including ‘maker-taker’ fee-and-rebate pricing models, to new temporary pricing restrictions across three test groups, and require the exchanges to prepare and publicly post data,” according to the agency’s website. The idea is to see what distortions these fees and rebates have on “best execution” of orders to buy and sell stocks. For example, an excess of rebates might lead to investors’ orders waiting on longer lines for execution, allowing high frequency traders to game the system, see those orders incoming and beat them to the punch. In 2014, 60 Minutes interviewed “Flash Boys” author Michael Lewis, who described this type of “front-running” of investors, saying, “Means they’re able to identify your desire to, to buy shares in Microsoft and buy ’em in front of you and sell ’em back to you at a higher price. It all happens in infinitesimally small periods of time. There’s speed advantage that the faster traders have is milliseconds, some of it is fractions of milliseconds. But it’s enough for them to identify what you’re gonna do and do it before you do…

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Maverick Musk Eyes $72 Billion Buyout to Take Tesla ‘Private’

Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is considering leading a buyout of the electric car maker in a stunning move that would end the maverick company’s eight-year history trading on the stock market. In his typically unorthodox fashion, the eccentric Musk dropped his bombshell on his Twitter account, which he has used as a platform for pranks, vitriol and now for a proposal to pull off one of the biggest buyouts in U.S. history. Musk got the ball rolling Tuesday after the stock market had already been open more than three hours with a tweet announcing he might buy all of Tesla’s stock at $420 per share with no further details. At that price, the buyout would cost nearly $72 billion, based on Tesla’s outstanding stock as of July 27, but it’s unlikely the deal would cost that much because Musk owns a roughly 20 percent stake in the Palo Alto, California, company. He also said he intends to give Tesla’s existing shareholders the option of retaining a stake in the company through a special fund, if they want. “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” Musk wrote in his first tweet, following up with “good morning” and a smiley…

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US Steel Says It Will Add 800 Jobs Thanks to Tariffs

steel factory

US Steel is hiring in the wake of President Donald Trump’s steel tariffs, CBS Pittsburgh says, citing a CNN Money report. US Steel said Tuesday it’s restarting the second of two blast furnaces at its plant in Granite City, Illinois, near St. Louis. It will bring on 300 workers to support the effort. The company previously announced it would reopen the first furnace, which would create 500 positions to be filled by new and returning employees. “After careful consideration of market conditions and customer demand, including the impact of Section 232, the restart of the two blast furnaces at Granite City Works will allow us to serve our customers’ growing demand for high quality products melted and poured in the United States,” US Steel CEO David Burritt said in a press release. Section 232 refers to the part of the trade law Trump invoked in March when he imposed steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, citing national security concerns. While waivers were at first granted to US allies, Trump last week slapped a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. All three are retaliating with…

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