US Election
On October 13, we asked what would happen “if Gina wins?” Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic state legislator from the traditionally Republican-voting Texas, was at the time given only a 1-in-5 chance of winning the state’s governorship, despite being tied in the polls with the conservative incumbent.
October has been a bad month for equities — particularly AI/tech ones — and a great month for oil. We do not think that the AI supercycle is ending, it has more room to go. Token price decline is a sign of a price war between LLMs, not a decline in demand. In fact, that price war is what is driving datacenter profitability, which is what the bull market is actually based on.
As such, what matters on a tactical time horizon is whether Trump capitulates on Iran. If he does not, the market will have to correct. We take the bullish side and expect oil prices to decline imminently, forcing a short squeeze and powering equities higher.
Democrats will win both houses in the midterm, but beyond near-term volatility, none of the outcomes pose a major market risk. The vote is more important as a signal of an anti-business turn in US policy in coming years, which markets could start to price in late 2027 or early 2028.
The big risk for the markets remains a flare up in the Middle East conflict. The Fed appears to be targeting geopolitics as much as inflation fundamentals. By the logic of transitive properties, therefore, more war means more hikes. That’s negative. So why are we not bearish on equities and bonds? Because President Trump holds his own faith in his hands. With his unfavourability near all-time highs (Chart of the Month), the conflict in Iran is at its end. Our worry? A Democratic Party sweep that surprises in its intensity and thus forces markets to start pricing in a leftward tilt in 2028.
Democratic candidate for the Texas Senate seat, James Talarico, has been leading his opponent, Republican Ken Paxton, for over a month in the betting markets. At the moment, Talarico’s probability of turning the Texas Senate seat blue is a whopping 65%. This is partly a result of Paxton’s flawed candidacy that builds on his dramatically flawed time as Texas’s attorney general. Remember, the staunchly Republican Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton in 2023!