Wall Street Loves/Hates Obama

Which is it?  CNN says hates.  Excerpts:

Wall Street's biggest gripe with President Obama is more about what he's said than what he's done.

"There's been so much finger pointing. He's made it seem bad to be successful and to be millionaires and billionaires," said Karl Wellner, CEO of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management, a fund with $3 billion under management.

Outside of Obama calling bankers "fat cats," most Wall Street professionals point to few specifics and basically say it's more of a vibe they get from the president...

Wall Street has given the majority of its contributions to the Republican party during this election cycle.

In fact, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has received more than three times what Obama has generated from Wall Street professionals, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That's a sharp turnaround from 2008, when Obama generated nearly double the Wall Street contributions of his then rival John McCain.

Beyond the rhetoric, several hedge fund managers also say that while health care and financial regulation were in need of reform, the president tackled them in a manner that put the government too deeply in the middle of both industries...

The Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch, on the other hand, says loves. Excerpts:

The stock market loves President Barack Obama. With all its cheating heart, and all its mercenary soul.


More than that, actually — it adores him. The love story of Wall Street and Obama is a bromance like no other, a man-crush for the ages.

Despite his threats to soak the wealthy for more taxes, despite Fed Chairman’s attack on savers, despite even his threat to kill special treatment for dividends, institutional investors have thrown themselves at Obama’s feet as they have not done in the first term of any president in the past century.

You could look it up. The S&P 500 has gained 76% since his inauguration in January 2009, while the Nasdaq 100 is up 128%.

Compare that to the S&P 500’s -13% decline and the Nasdaq 100’s -45% wipeout in the first term of his predecessor, George W. Bush; or the mere 25% gain in the first term of conservative icon Ronald Reagan; or even the 60% gain in the halcyon early 1990s in the first term of Bill Clinton.

The staggering advance of the market is probably one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments, and yet, in a rich irony, political sensitivities prevent him from bragging about it...

The administration and the Federal Reserve run by his appointed chairman, Ben Bernanke, have systematically stuffed big banks’ pockets with cash in an unending rescue effort, slashed interest rates to the lowest levels of the past 300 years, diverted senior citizens’ savings to revive the moribund residential construction industry and showered drug makers and insurers with fresh sources of revenue from his health care overhaul.

Little wonder then that Wall Street cannot bear the idea of parting ways with the Obama administration, and thus in the past two months has thrown a tantrum to protest the surprising advancement of challenger Mitt Romney in the polls.

Now that the president has won a second term, you can expect most of the sectors that have benefited from the present administration to keep on rolling. Here are some top prospects...

Well. The market reaction to President Obama's reelection? Not much in the early hours.