What the new US president means for your money

What does a Joe Biden presidency mean for your portfolio? The close-run election restricts Biden’s agenda – but certain companies will still do better than others, writes John Stepek.

Joe Biden
Joe Biden: how much will he be able to get done?
(Image credit: © Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Joe Biden is almost certain to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump may fight for every inch, but unless there’s a huge surprise, then, come January, Biden will be sworn in. How much does that matter for investors?

Despite all the fuss that gets made about it, the occupant of the White House matters far less than lots of other factors. But there’s no doubt that a Biden presidency will be better for certain sectors, and worse for others, than a Trump win. So what should you be taking into account?

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.