>
Article snippet: Despite the disorder in Washington — with a revolving door at the White House and roadblocks on Capitol Hill — Wall Street and corporate America are booming. The disconnect was evident Wednesday, as the Dow Jones industrial average passed the 22,000 mark, a new high. At the same time, blue chips like Apple, Caterpillar and U.S. Steel have all reported strong earnings in recent weeks that surpassed analysts’ forecasts. “None of the soap opera in Washington matters,” said Frank Sullivan, chief executive of RPM International, a Cleveland-based maker of specialty coatings and sealants like Rust-Oleum. “Nobody in business cares about who talked to who in Russia.” What does matter, Mr. Sullivan said, is stronger global demand in heavy industries like mining and oil and gas, a weaker dollar that helps exporters, and a lighter regulatory touch by the new administration. The initial stock market rally that followed Mr. Trump’s victory in November — the so-called Trump bump — was fueled by optimism among investors that long-sought action on tax reform and infrastructure spending might finally be at hand. Few analysts are so sanguine now, especially after Republicans could not agree last month on how to repeal the Affordable Care Act, after years of promising to do so. If anything, simplifying the tax code or investing in new roads and bridges seems farther out of reach than ever. But a market surge based on political hopes has been replaced by one more firmly grounded in t... Link to the full article to read more