S&P futures briefly fell after President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, pleading guilty on Tuesday, said a candidate for federal office directed him to pay off a porn star “for the principal purpose of influencing” the election.
The S&P 500 was 18 points off of its midday highs in late futures trading.
“It’s falling on the headline that for Michael Cohen, one of the counts was for making a payment to Stormy Daniels, at the direction of an unnamed candidate,” Said Peter Boockvar, the chief investment strategist at Bleakley Financial. “Michael Cohen’s legal problem is now a legal problem for Trump.”
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF is down more than 0.3 percent in after hours trading. The Invesco QQQ is down more than 0.4 percent.
Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and so-called “fixer,” agreed to plead guilty on Tuesday to eight charges related to tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, making false statements to a financial institution and unlawful corporate contributions.
Cohen admitted to making payments to two women at the direction of an unidentified candidate for political office “to influence the outcome of the election” by keeping information from becoming public. One of the payments, of $130,000, is thought to be a reference to the payment Cohen orchestrated to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, who is suing Trump.
“This is all noise for the economy and this could be nothing for Trump. That’s why the futures came in, the uncertainty of where this whole thing goes,” said Boockvar.
This story is developing. Please check back for further updates.
