The market closed a record-setting session on Wednesday, experiencing its longest bull market run ever – and some financial experts have suggested that 3,453-day rally could last well into the foreseeable future.
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Robert Greifeld, the former Nasdaq CEO, said the market focuses on corporate earnings, which have been the main drivers of the market. The second-quarter earnings season was largely positive for the major U.S. stock indexes this summer.
“While I’m not sure about a 50-year bull market, at the end of the day, whether it’s a record bull market or not, what matters: Are earnings growing? Are corporations doing better?” Greifeld said during an interview with FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. “And I think the prognosis of that, certainly in the next 12 months, is quite strong.”
That’s in large part because the benefits of the Republican-endorsed 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have not fully affected corporate earnings, according to Greifeld. The tax reform, signed into law by President Trump in December, slashed the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent.
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Combined with the deregulation encouraged by the Trump administration – like the rollback of some provisions of the Dodds-Frank Act in May – there will likely be new business opportunities to pursue in the upcoming year, he saisd.
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“Look at the earnings today. I still see that we have tailwinds coming with respect to the changes this administration has made,” Greifeld said.
Although stocks opened slightly lower on Wednesday after the legal troubles of two former associates of Trump, Greifeld remained confident that politics would not disturb the markets too much.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes, including tax fraud, and the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions.
“The markets are completely apolitical,” he said. “It’s the expression of capitalist desires in the marketplace. They’re alive and well right now.”
