‘U.S. CORPORATES SUPPORT TRUMP’
Marts have responded well and confidence is building
RUPA DAMODARAN
KUALA LUMPUR rupabanerji@mediaprima.com.my
WELL past 50 days now, and President Donald Trump is surely gaining the support of the powerful United States corporate sector. Confidence is building for Trump even though “he is a bit of wild card”, as is seen on a daily basis, Bloomberg LP chairman Peter Grauer told NST Business.
But in general, corporate USS is reasonably positive and it is willing to wait and see what the new US leadership has to offer.
The markets had responded well since Trump entered the White House in l a t e Ja n u a r y, s a i d Grauer.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke the 20,000-point level, bringing smiles to company heads who enjoyed a collective US$402 billion (RM1.78 trillion) surge in the value of their stock holdings.
The weather report for the world’s largest economy was also bright and the US dollar has enjoyed a strong rally, while the jobs report showed 235,000 jobs were created in Trump’s first month in office.
“We have a new president getting his feet under the desk, trying to drive the administration going forward,” said Grauer in an interview during his one-day visit to Malaysia. He has left for China.
Much of Trump’s platform is focused on spending or changing the tax code and bringing capital back to the US. The markets have responded favourably to that.
“The Fed has moved the interest rate up by 25 basis points — the third time in 10 years — and that is also good news for the market. We are in a rising rate environment and there will be some inflation caused by the infrastructure programme Trump wants to put in place.”
Grauer admitted there were growing concerns about how rapidly Trump was filling out his administration, whether they be the cabinet members or key advisers of the various agencies or departments, but said there was nothing to worry about.
“The first Obama and first Bush admdministrations were ‘not far’ fromfr where Trump is.”
But so far, the important state, defence and national security posts had been filled with “good and solid” individuals, he said.
“The challenge now is how much accountability th hey are going to have and how mu ch responsibility will the president give them to discharge. Time will tell.”
Another five appointments are to be announced soon and Grauer said their bios were impressive.
Grauer, who is a member of the Business Council based in Washington, said the general reception of the corporates had been “reasonably positive” when they met Trump weeks ago.
The wait-and-see stance must also be observed by the rest of the world, he said, as “we got to wait and see how it works its way out”.
“It is early in the process. From a business perspective, business leaders are saying he (Trump) is our president we have to get behind him and give him an opportunity,” said Grauer.
Part two of interview on Monday