Muddled Markets Meet Mexico, Modi and Mandela
Investors love Modi, fear Sheinbaum, and are holding their breath over whoever joins a coalition in South Africa.
Mexican stocks didn’t join the celebration.
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After a weekend of political shock, we know a lot more about how markets feel about one-party rule. In the US, the cliche is that investors like gridlock, but that isn’t universal. South Africa is leaving single-party control for the first time in 30 years, and investors seem fine with some extra checks on the African National Congress. Markets appeared to love the extra freedom of movement that a landslide indicated by exit polls had promised for India’s Narendra Modi, only to tumble when early counting showed a far tighter result. And they absolutely hated the huge mandate Mexicans bestowed on Claudia Sheinbaum.