(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump took a victory lap in an address to Congress on Tuesday, drawing catcalls and interruptions from some Democratic lawmakers who held up signs and walked out mid-speech in protest.
The prime time speech, his first to Congress since taking office on January 20, capped a second day of market turmoil after he imposed sweeping new tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China.
There was little market reaction to Trump’s address. S&P 500 stock futures added slightly to gains as he spoke and were last up 0.66%.
He vowed to balance the federal budget, even as he urged lawmakers to enact a sweeping tax cut agenda that nonpartisan analysts say could add more than $5 trillion to the federal government’s $36 trillion debt load.
Trump reiterated his intention to impose additional reciprocal tariffs on April 2, a move that would likely roil financial markets even more.
COMMENTS:
MICHAEL SCHULMAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, RUNNING POINT CAPITAL ADVISORS
“Cutting taxes on individuals and domestic manufacturing and 100% immediate capex deductions will incentivize business spending as long as corporations believe the consumer will be there to spend. Investor reaction should overall be positive since disposable income may rise when these policies are passed”
ANTHONY SAGLIMBENE, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL,
“The volatility in the market around tariffs is likely to continue, because it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a change in policy or the U.S. is ready to back off of these tariffs.”
JJ KINAHAN, PRESIDENT OF TASTYTRADE BROKERAGE IN CHICAGO
“We had a sell off into the close so some of that is I think just us bouncing back naturally. I think the fact that nothing has sold off and we continued to drift higher, means the market, I won’t say they love the speech, but at least doesn’t hate it. I don’t think there’s too much in here that was said that wasn’t at least somewhat expected.”
ART HOGAN, STRATEGIST, B. RILEY WEALTH
“He didn’t break any new ground, maybe that’s positive and maybe the market will be excited about the fact that the tone was pretty much as expected.” The one concerning aspect of the president’s comments on tariffs, Hogan said, was that rather than following up on hints on Tuesday afternoon by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that there may be some resolution to the tariffs with Mexico and Canada, Trump doubled down by announcing reciprocal tariffs to start April 2.
