Posted on 12 Jan 2021
US steel market players reacted Monday to last week’s turbulent political happenings, which culminated in a ransacking of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, and the subsequent filing of a second impeachment of US President Donald Trump.
While lawmakers prepared to ratify the votes that cemented challenger Joe Biden’s electoral victory over President Trump on 6 January, the contentious leader gave a speech apparently urging a large group of protestors to march on the Capitol.
The protestors then broke into the Capitol. The melee left one protester dead of a gunshot inflicted by security personnel and one police officer beaten to death by the mob. Three other protestors died of medical emergencies, Kallanish notes.
The electoral votes were ratified and Biden is set to take office on 20 January. However, lawmakers at all levels have called for President Trump’s removal before that date. He is the only president to have ever been impeached twice.
“We are a country of laws, and they should be enforced,” says one Midwest sheet buyer.
A Gulf Coast tubular trader says the disgraced state of the Trump administration will likely heighten structural changes - both internal and external - the Biden administration had already planned to put in place.
“My guess is that Biden will be much friendlier to emerging market players than Trump,” he says. “He will likely want to make everyone a buddy as he criticised Trump for being too tough.”
Now that Biden seemingly has a mandate in the Democratically controlled Senate and Trump loyalists on the ropes, his fiscal policy may become more bold.
“Clearly, he will spend/print a pile of money on Covid relief and stimulus. That will lead to an inflationary environment and everything takes a bump up as the year progresses,” the trader says. “Steel guys will get help from all the spending and inflation to offset any trade policy retreat. As for last week, Georgia and the run to the Hill will strengthen the hold and the new leadership will certainly focus on spending all they can get by with. It will be trillions!”
Source:Kallanish
