November 7, 2012
(Note: This is Mark Vickery, substituting for Sheraz Mian
while he is away.)
While no one can honestly profess absolute shock that Barack
Obama has won a second term as president, an early morning
sell-off in Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures tells us that
there was plenty of money riding on a Mitt Romney presidency,
which did not happen. Whether we're in for a tough slog today and
for the rest of the week remains to be seen, but at least a major
hurdle of uncertainty is now behind us.
Of course, the issue of the Fiscal Cliff -- terms of the Budget
Control Act of 2011, including new tax hikes and drastic
government spending cuts, especially in the Department of Defense
-- now comes front and center. This is a colossal game of
"chicken," whereby it comes down to who blinks first before the
Budget Control Act (as of January 2013) crashes the U.S. economy.
Aside from a few gains here or there, both houses of Congress
remain where they were before the election: Republicans in charge
of the House, Democrats in charge of the Senate. There are fewer
"radical" Tea Party members in both houses as of the new
Congress, which might give the market more confidence that an
agreement about the Fiscal Cliff can be reached, but with such a
big decision looming, I'd expect the market to tread lightly
ahead of news coming from some bipartisan closed-door sessions
before 2012 is over.
Now that the election is history, I would advise investors
looking for answers to assisting their portfolio to check out "5
Stocks If Obama Wins," a popular and timely write-up from
Zacks.com which may come in handy during the aftermath of the
election. For more information, please contact 1.800.767.3771
ext. 9339, or support@zacks.com.
In earnings news,
WellPoint
(
WLP
), the #2 U.S. health insurer, beat EPS expectations and improved
on net income year over year. Revenues were unchanged from a year
ago.
Time Warner Cable
(
TWX
) also beat EPS estimates before the bell today, and though
revenues were down overall, guidance from the company was
unchanged.
Mark Vickery
Senior Editor
TIME WARNER INC (TWX): Free Stock Analysis
Report
WELLPOINT INC (WLP): Free Stock Analysis
Report
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