Mark Whitehouse, Columnist

Nobody Knows Why Markets Like Trump

Investor optimism about the new president contrasts with a lack of details about what he will do.

January 23, 2017 at 12:00 PM UTC

Mark Whitehouse is a member of the editorial board covering global economics and finance. Previously, he reported on economics for the Wall Street Journal and was managing editor of Vedomosti, a Russian-language business daily.

Why so sure?
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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Now that he's in office, Donald Trump faces the challenge of resolving a big disconnect: At no point in the past few decades has investors' optimism about a new president contrasted so sharply with an information void about what he will actually do.

Financial markets have put a lot of faith in Trump. As of inauguration day, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index -- despite a lackluster several weeks -- was up 6.6 percent from Nov. 7, the day before the election. That's a larger gain than under any of the past four presidents-elect. Here's how that looks: