Financial markets may seem a little jittery lately, but one Houston professor says it's normal for the days before a new President takes over.
And while decent financial news keeps coming, markets are likely to continue their moves up.
The biggest worries right now are how inflation's doing (and a new report out today), how consumer spending and confidence are doing, and whether Donald Trump, who becomes president next week, will start in on tariffs.
University of Houston Professor Dr. Steven Craig says the concern about tariffs goes hand-in-hand with worries about inflation.
"Because that's going to have an effect on prices. If he puts big tariffs on our trading partners, well, that's going to have a big effect on prices, so both of those moves would typically be thought of as accelerating inflation, absolutely."
At the same time there's a feeling that many already understand, based on his first term in office, what President-Elect Trump will do if there's economic trouble ahead.
"I think Trump is, if there were a recession, I think Trump is likely to try to do big things to countervail that," he says.
And concerns about the Federal Reserve's future actions and whether that means perhaps a drop in interest rates, is always on the mind of US financial markets, Professor Craig says.
And even though politics often can't be avoided, you can always tell when the political moves by the Fed politics are going well or going poorly.
"The Fed is doing as best it can in a tricky environment. They claim to be apolitical and on average they've held to that, and you can always tell because politicians complain about what they're doing.
"So that's always a good sign."
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