President Obama's re-election Tuesday night came as a disappointment to the many on Wall Street who had rallied behind Mitt Romney.
Markets seemed to reflect this sentiment Wednesday morning, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average falling modestly. Both indexes were down by more than 1 percent in morning trading. Of course the outcome of the election may have already been factored into the market.
Wall St. told pollsters that, while supporting Romney, they believed O would win. So why the sell-off?
- danprimack (@danprimack) November 7, 2012
But many looked ahead as the industry speculated about the future of regulation and the economy.
Analysts at Citigroup had been predicting an Obama victory for some time. The talk on Wall Street now moves to budget problems.
“What will matter now is how quickly and how successfully the politicians on both sides of the political spectrum come to an agreement about its massive fiscal cliff,†Geoffrey Dennis of Citigroup said in an interview on CNBC.
Alice Ross, a correspondent for the Financial Times, summed up the bank's reaction in 140 characters or less.
Nice. Citigroup: “US Election: MittÂ's Offâ€
- Alice Ross (@aliceemross) November 7, 2012
A number of people took to social media to offer their condolences to the financial sector. A Twitter user called “deepfoo†wrote:
Wall Street must really hate that Obama won. My terminal won't fully initialize this morning. #thatswhatshesaid
- deepfoo (@deepfoo) November 7, 2012
The parody account @GSElevator, which claims to tweet snippets of dialogue overheard at Goldman Sachs, sounded glum, with tweets not fit to be printed here.
At the Blackstone Group, two executives found themselves on opposite sides of the political debate. Fortune's Dan Primack noted this on Wednesday:
Does Tony James make Steve Schwarzman wear an Obama hat today? $BX
- danprimack (@danprimack) November 7, 2012
Daniel Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital, began speculating about the next Treasury secretary, with Timothy F. Geithner expected to step down:
@joshrosner Erskine Bowles is the right man for the job Josh, to be sure. But it is more likely to be Jack Lew. Exeunt Timid Timmy finally.
- Dan Alpert (@DanielAlpert) November 7, 2012
Vincent Reinhart, the chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, joined the guessing game on CNBC in a discussion on the Federal Reserve.
“The Fed Reserve, like the Supreme Court, pays attention to elections and they got an implied vote from the American people about policy in terventionism and the weights toward resource slack versus inflation,†Mr. Reinhart said. “And so in some sense it validates the more accommodative stance the Fed Reserve took starting in December.â€
In another closely watched race on Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren won a seat in the Senate. Ms. Warren, a Harvard professor who has provoked anger from Wall Street with her calls to rein in banks' risky ways, is now poised to have even more influence.
This could be the worst election for Wall Street in decades bit.ly/T2zGk8 by @timfernholz
- Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) November 7, 2012
A financially-minded Twitter user named “IvanTheK†wrote:
My only advice to Senator-elect Warren is to remember the order of the following: 1. Ready. 2. Aim. 3. Fire.
- Ivan the K (@IvanTheK) November 7, 2012
It was, all around, a glum day for the advocates of w eaker financial regulation. But there's always next time.
IHT Rendezvous: Gearing Up For Election 2016 nyti.ms/VCfQR7
- New York Times World (@nytimesworld) November 7, 2012
