Week In Review: How Trump's Policies Moved Stocks - Sunday, September 24

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Trump and his administration with this weekly recap compiled by The Fly:

1. HEALTHCARE: On Wednesday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he intends to consider the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill on the Senate floor next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The same day, President Trump tweeted, "Rand Paul is a friend of mine but he is such a negative force when it comes to fixing healthcare. Graham-Cassidy Bill is GREAT! Ends Ocare!...I hope Republican Senators will vote for Graham-Cassidy and fulfill their promise to Repeal & Replace ObamaCare. Money direct to States!" However, on Friday, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona voiced his opposition to the Graham-Cassidy bill, stating, "I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried." This blow from McCain, who also cast the deciding vote in defeating a prior "skinny repeal" effort, gives the Graham-Cassidy legislation much slimmer chances of passing. Publicly traded companies in the healthcare insurance space include Aetna (AET), Anthem (ANTM), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Health Net (HNT), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH), UnitedHealth (UNH) and WellCare (WCG).

2. GUN MAKERS: On Tuesday, Reuters reported that aides to President Donald Trump are looking to shift oversight of international non-military gun sales from the State Department to the Commerce Department as part of a bid to make it easier for U.S. gun makers to sell small arms to foreign buyers. Following the report, shares of American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the parent of Smith & Wesson, and Sturm Ruger (RGR) jumped.

3. DACA: Wal-Mart (WMT), Pepsi (PEP) and Target (TGT) have joined a group of nearly 800 companies calling for the U.S. to pass a permanent replacement for DACA, Reuters reported, citing organizer FWD.us. A group of businesses, including Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon  (AMZN), sent a similar letter in August, before President Trump announced plans to wind down the program. Both letters were spearheaded by FWD.us, a pro-immigration group co-founded by Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

4. U.S ELECTIONS: The congressional investigation on Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election could bring companies like Twitter (TWTR), Google (GOOGL) and more into the mix, according to a report by Recode on Thursday. Senator Mark Warner is fearful that Russian agents could have used bots to extend their message on Twitter and other websites. Warner is also concerned about the way Google's search results related to the 2016 election appeared. While neither of the companies have been officially requested to testify, Warner told Recode that it is to be determined. The same day, Facebook explained why it has decided to share ads with Congress amid the election probe. "As our General Counsel has explained, this is an extraordinary investigation - one that raises questions that go to the integrity of the US elections. After an extensive legal and policy review, we've concluded that sharing the ads we've discovered with Congress, in a manner that is consistent with our obligations to protect user information, will help government authorities complete the vitally important work of assessing what happened in the 2016 election. That is an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries - and we want to do our part. Congress is best placed to use the information we and others provide to inform the public comprehensively and completely," the company said. "Week in Review" is The Fly's weekly recap of its recurring series of "Trump Effect" exclusive stories.
 

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