Investors in US financial markets feared before the presidential election that Donald Trump would not want to leave office in the event of a loss and would fight for the White House. But post-election developments have shown that the possibility of reversing the results of the vote is already virtually zero.
Although, in theory, Donald Trump still has a chance, markets don’t think so. The New York Stock Exchange’s main S&P 500 index has strengthened by about six since the election, and the Dow Jones industrial average is up nearly seven percent. “Markets believe that Joe Biden’s victory can be reversed very hard,” Maneesh Deshpande, head of derivatives at Barclays bank, told Reuters.
In short, stock markets prefer a clear winner from regular elections than a winner who had to be confirmed only by a lawsuit, as was the case in 2000. Back then, George W. Bush and Albert Gore were vying for the White House. For five weeks, the United States had no clarity on who its citizens had actually chosen as president.
Analysts say markets now don’t even mind that Donald Trump hasn’t yet acknowledged his defeat. Investors are so clearly rock-solid that Biden’s victory is so convincing that even any recounts can make no difference to the outcome.
