After Americans witnessed a cringe-worthy presidential debate the night before, investors paid up for stocks on Wednesday, thanks to what wasn’t said during the event, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said.
Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden sparred in a rocky first round between the 2020 candidates, and the major averages rose about 1% the day after.
“Wall Street was worried about a lot of things going into last night’s debate and almost none of them came true,” the “Mad Money” host said. “That’s how a fiasco for most voters could be fabulous for the stock market.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied nearly 330 points to a 27,781.70 close to gain 1.2% in a volatile session. The S&P 500 advanced 0.83% to 3,363 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7% to 11,167.51.
Stocks were buoyed by talks of lawmakers reaching an additional coronavirus spending bill that has proved to be elusive all quarter. With the third quarter coming to a close Wednesday, the market enjoyed a second-straight three-month period of strong growth in the wake of a major market meltdown at the onset of the Covid-19 epidemic in America.
But certain sectors on the market managed to power forward after investors, who are trying to gauge what the next four years of federal policy may look like, digested what Trump and Biden said or did not say on the debate stage.
The candidates dueled over health care and the state of the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, but fell short of bashing health insurers and drugmakers, Cramer said. Trump and the Republican Party have failed to make good on their four-year promise to “repeal and replace” the law that overhauled the country’s health-care system.
The tones that both Biden and Trump struck, however, helped shares of government-sponsored health providers like Centene rally more than 4%, Cramer said. Trump doubled down on his party’s plan to get rid of the law, while Biden promised to expand its reach.
“If Obamacare is here to stay regardless of who wins, that’s fabulous for the managed care companies. And, of course, Biden helped create Obamacare,” he said. “Whether you love it or hate it, it’s good news for these stocks.”
Financial stocks like Discover and Goldman Sachs also managed to run as Biden laid off the financial sector, Cramer added. Furthermore, optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine continues to carry stocks of developers like Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer higher.
Outside of Trump’s casting blame on the coronavirus pandemic on the country, China did not become a punching bag during the debate, which pleased investors in companies with exposure to the Asian nation, Cramer said.
“Trump and Biden could get into a fistfight or a food fight, for that matter, as long as they don’t target specific industries that are easy to hate or ramp up the tensions with China, and that causes the market to go higher,” the host said.
