Top 15 For 2008 (No. 13): Obama Elected President
StreetInsider.com has put together its 'Top 15 For 2008' which chronicles our view of the most significant news on Wall Street during the tumultuous year.
Number 13: Obama Elected President
The election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States was one of the top general news stories on 2008, but while important - with the credit crunch, bailouts and blow-ups on Wall Street - his election is being placed near the bottom of our list for the year.
While low on the 2008 list, Obama will likely be at or near the top of this 2009 list as 'Obamanomics' plays out.
Barack Obama has made the U.S. economy his top priority, as rightly it should be. He is already working with his economic team and congressional leaders to craft his plan. The Obama economic-stimulus package has been reported as having a price tag of nearly $800 billion, with a large portion being spent on updating aging infrastructure. But with the ebb and flow of the U.S. economy, the plan is a work in progress. Today, reports from the Wall Street Journal surfaced that as much as 40%, or $300 billion, could go to tax cuts for business and individuals to get Republican support. It looks like campaign rhetoric that Obama will raise taxes on rich tax payers may not come to fruition, which in our opinion is a good thing. Obama realizes that raising taxes on anyone in this tough economic environment could be detrimental.
While initially trading sharply lower following his election, the stock market stabilized at the end of the year.
Some stocks and sector that could benefit from Obama's infrastructure spending and other initiatives could include:
Construction Equipment Makers: Joy Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: JOYG), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Bucyrus International Inc. (Nasdaq: BUCY) and Terex Corp. (NYSE: TEX).
Steel Companies: United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), Nucor (NYSE: NUE) and ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT).
Metal Companies: Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX).
Renewable/Alternative Energy: First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENER) and SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWRA).
Health Insurers could be helped our hurt by Ombama's plans to expand health-care coverage: Humana (NYSE: HUM), UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH), WellPoint (NYSE: WLP).
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