Expectations Could Trip Up Trump

Charlie Cook: “In short, at least a size­able num­ber of Amer­ic­ans are quite hope­ful that things will get bet­ter over the next year, at least in part be­cause of Trump’s elec­tion. It also might be worth not­ing that the sur­veys showed that much of the op­tim­ism was among older Amer­ic­ans. With the stock mar­ket run­ning pretty much at re­cord highs since Novem­ber, and older Amer­ic­ans gen­er­ally more in­ves­ted in the stock mar­ket than young­er people, this op­tim­ism may be re­lated to or caused by the mar­ket’s per­form­ance.”

“But it’s not quite clear which is the cart and which is the horse. Are people feel­ing bet­ter be­cause the stock mar­ket is do­ing well, or is the stock mar­ket do­ing well be­cause people are feel­ing bet­ter, or maybe both?”