CNBC may be a bastion of liberal politics and one of the left-leaning news organizations leading the media charge against Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but even the host of CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ Jim Cramer had to acknowledge that President Trump’s pro-business agenda has had a positive effect on the stock market.
“I swear people are bored with what's going on with stocks," the Mad Money host noted on his December 2 program. “Either they don't want to say anything good about the market because of politics, as the president has done a very good job of linking himself with the performance of the averages, or they're just prone to sleep.”
With the S&P 500 having gained almost 20 percent in 2017, most investors have benefited from the huge rallies that have sent nearly every sector surging. While at first Cramer offers only a half-hearted acknowledgement of Trump’s pro-business agenda and how it has benefited the stock market, he later makes it clear how this administration has benefited almost all stock market investors.
“That's what progress is all about. Is it related to President Trump's policies? Look, love him or hate him, the answer is yes," Cramer admitted. "The president has created a pro-growth environment and along with a new tax code that will take money from the government ... and give it to the corporations."
Cramer goes on to note that the benefits that are a result of the strong stock market should be enjoyed by stock holders on both sides of the partisan divide.
The most positive comments about Trump came at the end of his program when Cramer listed the reason behind the stock market’s impressive rise:
“The bottom line is simple: for whatever reason, the animal spirits triggered by the president's focus on deregulation, the bonuses being given to workers after the tax cut, the weaker dollar going into the earnings, the boom in the Southeast because of a glut of natural gas, the coming boost in earnings estimates thanks to the slashing of corporate taxes, we've got an incredible rally, and this kind of move is never boring. It's not a bull; it's a beast. And right now, it's in beast mode,” he said.
Trump’s pro-business agenda simply can’t be ignored. Even the president’s opponents are starting to take notice.
Tech Stocks Rise amid Rumors of Netflix-Apple Merger
According to the New York Post, the stock market continued to roar on January 2 (the first trading day of 2018), as the NASDAQ soared 1.5% to its highest level ever, closing at 7,006.90. The tech-focused index continued its torrid pace amid swirling rumors of a takeover in Silicon Valley, and a day after Citigroup announced that there is 40 percent likelihood that Apple (AAPL) will purchase the online streaming giant Netflix (NFLX), a company that is purportedly worth an estimated $87 billion. On January 2, Netflix stock jumped $9.11 closing at 201.07, a 4.75% one-day increase.
The Trump tax reforms, which lower the corporate tax rate to 21 percent, makes Apple’s acquisition of a major companies much more lucrative. A Netflix-Apple merger would add further fuel to a tech sector that surged in 2017.
“The firm [Apple] has too much cash – nearly $250 billion – growing at $50 billion a year. This is a good problem to have,” Citi said in its note to clients, which was published in Business Insider on January 1.