Trump + Stocks: The Week In Review - Friday, Feb. 3
For most of the week, President Donald Trump's executive order regarding immigration made headlines, sparking not only protests at U.S. airports, but also comments from several CEOs of U.S. companies. Meanwhile, the President signed a new executive order on Friday dramatically scaling back Dodd-Frank, after meeting with top executives from major companies.
IMMIGRATION EXECUTIVE ORDER: Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order indefinitely barring Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., suspending all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocking citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Following the announcement, several CEOs of major U.S. companies voiced their doubts and concern over the potential impact of this action. Among those who commented on this executive order were the CEOs of Starbucks (SBUX), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix (NFLX), Tesla (TSLA), IBM (IBM), and Goldman Sachs (GS).
DELTA AIR LINES: On Monday, shares of Delta Air Lines (DAL) were under pressure after President Trump deflected the blame for airport chaos on his immigration executive order and accused the company's temporary tech outage of causing "big problems" at airports. Using his Twitter account, the President said: "Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage."
GENERAL MOTORS, FORD: Commenting on possible anti-U.S. pushback in China as a result of President Trump's policies, Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter told investors that while only 47% of General Motors' (GM) total volume in China stems from hallmark American brands like Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac, he thinks these brands represent more than 70% of its joint venture income in China, due to higher pricing than its Chinese brands. While the analyst recommended owning both General Motors and Ford (F), he told investors that in the context of a Trump presidency, the latter may be better positioned given its smaller China business. Ford has less to lose and has also relatively little reliance on Mexican imports, Potter contended.
MEETINGS WITH CEOS: On Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with the CEOs of Novartis (NVS), Merck (MRK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Celgene (CELG), Eli Lilly (LLY) and Amgen (AMGN). Trump called on the pharmaceutical industry to boost U.S. production and lower prices, while saying he will be appointing a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration leader soon. The President also vowed to speed up approval times for new medicines, which sent shares of a number of drug developers, including Portola Pharmaceuticals (PTLA) and Intra-Cellular Therapies (ITCI), higher. Additionally, Amgen CEO Robert Bradway took the opportunity to tell Donald Trump that the company is adding 1,600 jobs in the U.S. this year. Two days later, the President met with executives from Harley-Davidson (HOG), and on Friday he sat down with CEOs of major companies such as Blackstone (BX), JPMorgan (JPM), General Motors, IBM, and Tesla to discuss the economy.
REGULATION ROLLBACK: On Friday, Donald Trump signed a new executive order intended to ease regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. The move addressed one of Trump's campaign promises, namely dismantling 2010's financial overhaul legislation, known as Dodd-Frank. The move sent shares of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup (C) higher.
"Trump + Stocks" is weekly recap of its recurring series of "Trump Effect" exclusive stories that highlight stocks that are being impacted, or are predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Trump and his administration.
Disclosure: None.