After an exhausting election season, we now know the next president of the United States will be Donald Trump.
That reality scared some Americans enough to crash the Canadian Immigration website Tuesday night. The thought of President Trump brings genuine excitement to others. The divide among the American electorate is real and deep. We can mostly agree on two things, however:
1. We're glad it's over.
2. It's impossible to know what will happen when a career businessman with no political experience is in the White House.
Despite the rally that sent the Dow Jones industrial average more than 250 points higher the day after the election, investors can expect big swings in the weeks to come. There are still more questions than answers about Trump's economic policies and ability to govern.
That being said, it's unlikely Trump's influence on the stock market will ever be greater than it is now. With the election over, investors' attention will refocus on the things that matter most to the market: economic data, corporate earnings, and central bank policies.
An unhealthy obsession with the presidential election and "what is wrong with America" has obscured the fact the U.S. economy remains stable and, dare we say, strong.
The economy added a respectable 192,000 jobs per month, on average, from July through September. Unemployment nationally remains below 5 percent, the lowest in more than four decades, and wage growth is beginning to accelerate. Consumer confidence reached its highest level since the end of the Great Recession.
