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John Authers

Stocks Will Get Over Their Big Biden Tax Wobble

History shows that the effects of changes in capital-gains rates don’t tend to endure.

It’s going to be this big. — It’s going to be this big.
Photographer: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

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April 23, 2021, 4:28 AM UTC

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Stock markets don’t like it when politicians say they are going to raise capital-gains taxes. This should come as no surprise to anyone, and so Wall Street’s response to Thursday’s Bloomberg News exclusive that President Biden is planning a big hike in CGT was predictable. No prizes for working out exactly when that story was published after looking at this intraday chart of the S&P 500: