US election: stockmarkets don’t care who’s in the White House

The economic cycle and America's central bank have a much bigger effect on long-term stockmarket returns than whether Democrats or Republicans are in power.

Barack Obama © PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/AFP via Getty Images
Under Barack Obama the S&P 500 index jumped by 71%
(Image credit: © PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“No stimulus, no problem,” say William Watts and Sunny Oh for MarketWatch.com. This week Democrats and Republicans continued to discuss another stimulus package, but the odds of any deal before the election looked increasingly remote.

Nevertheless, bulls have decided that the American consumer can probably hold on until 2021 even without further help. Retail sales rose by 1.9% in September, the fifth straight month of gains.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.