With the election less than 6 weeks away many investors worry about how the election is going to affect their portfolio. The truth of the matter is that if you are a long term investor, jobs reports, GDP, and the election shouldn’t be something you should worry about. They are just a blip on the radar of a long term investor. That being said, things don’t always go the way we plan and sometimes long term investors need short term money, so let’s discuss how elections tend to affect the market.
If you are like most investors and invested in the broad market; typically, it doesn’t make much difference who is in office. The difference between Republican and Democrat presidents in the SP 500 is very close. So the likely scenario is that the total market would react similarly no matter who is in the white house.
That being said, that is not necissarily the same when looking at specific sectors of the market. If the past is any predictor of the future, a Republican in the white house would be good for financials, industrials, and energy, according to investing.com. And according to JP Morgan, technology, health care, and utilities would do better under a Democrat in the white house.