Biden Picks Powell and Stocks Surge to New High

The stock market is off to a strong start for this holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 has been as high as 4,726.60 this morning which is a record intra-day high. The current highest close came exactly two weeks ago when the index finished the day at 4,701.70. It looks like we can beat that, but there’s a lot of trading left to go.

The big news today is that President Biden has reappointed Jerome Powell to another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The nomination still has to be approved by the Senate. Powell was first appointed by President Trump four years ago.

There was some speculation that Biden might appoint Fed Governor Lael Brainard. The president has appointed her as Vice-Chairman.

“Chair Powell has provided steady leadership during an unprecedently challenging period, including the biggest economic downturn in modern history and attacks on the independence of the Federal Reserve,” a White House statement said. “During that time, Lael Brainard – one of our country’s leading macroeconomists – has played a key leadership role at the Federal Reserve, working with Powell to help power our country’s robust economic recovery.

As a technical note, there are actually two nominations for Powell. One is as a member of the Fed’s board. Those are 14-year positions. There’s a separate nomination to be Chairman of the Board, and that’s a four-year term. That means that if Biden had not reappointed Powell, he would still be a member of the board.

Powell was first made a board member by President Obama. President Trump elevated him to Chair, and President has reappointed him Chair.

Four years ago, the Senate approved Powell 84–13. Interestingly, one of the no votes was then-Senator Kamala Harris.

The stock market will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving. On Friday, the market will close at 1 p.m. That’s traditionally the lowest-volume day of the year.

In 2009, shares of Vonage got as low as 31 cents. Today, Ericsson is buying it for $21 per share, in cash. The deal is for $6.2 billion in cash.

Posted by on November 22nd, 2021 at 10:15 am


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