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Markets Are On A Roll Under Trump, So How Should You Invest?

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The markets have been on a roll since Donald Trump took office, but what does that mean for the average investor?

"The stock market has hit record numbers as you know, and there is a tremendous surge of optimism," President Trump said.

As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, when he isn't talking about it, he's tweeting about it.

Many on Wall Street seem to agree.

"I think he's doing a very good job giving us confidence in regards to business, companies being in growth," trader Miguel Holguin said.

"If he can bring back some of the money that's been overseas for years, bring back some of the revenue, I think that will help us in this industry quite a bit," banker Doug Christensen added.

In the meantime, investors have been getting a big pay off.

Since Election Day the S&P 500 has skyrocketed 9.8 percent. That means if you invested $10,000 on November 8, by now it would have made $980.

So what's driving the stock market to record territory? Experts say Wall Street believes Mr. Trump is on their side.

"There's a lot of belief that Trump is going to put forth pro-business policies, and loosen regulation and free up a lot of capital and increase fiscal spending and all those things Wall Street is seeing as good for stocks," Marketwatch, Markets Editor, Mark DeCambre said.

So the market is on a roll, but what about the future? Some people worry about when things could slow down.

"I'm in between bullish and bearish. I think generally all this talk of trade wars and tariff. I think this is net negative in the long run," Jeff Lehrfield said.

On Wednesday, Fed chairwoman Janet Yellin signaled possible interest rate hikes which would raise the cost of borrowing.

The question remains -- what should the average investor do?

"Ultimately the view there is a lot of optimism, but they want to see actual details around what these policies are," DeCambre said.

Experts said it's not bad to stay put if you are in it for the long haul, since the market has been strong despite turmoil in Washington.

 

 

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