Byron Wien is out with his latest monthly paper and he dissects Trump’s policies and potential impacts on the market, here’s some snippets and a link to the rest of the article

• Three sectors that should benefit most are energy, health care and finance. We are likely to see more drilling activity on federal lands and more capital spending in the oil and gas industry. The coal industry, which has a significant cost advantage in producing electricity, will see some restrictions lifted. The more onerous provisions of Dodd-Frank are likely to be altered, giving financial institutions more flexibility. The federal government may well be less hostile toward the pharmaceutical industry on drug pricing, recognizing that these companies have to earn a reasonable return on their costly research.
• If the corporate rate were reduced to 20%, earnings for next year could be as high as $130. This would make the S&P 500 index, currently about one standard deviation above the historical norm, more fairly valued and provide the possibility of appreciation from present levels
• …Trump will vigorously pursue a pro-growth agenda. The Fed will tighten, inflation and interest rates will rise somewhat and profits will improve. I am optimistic for equities for the near term

Source: Blackstone 

A new King

So what has already been written for the past 30 years has been confirmed, Thailand has a new King, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, so what questions are left for the future of the country? I’m still of the viewpoint that elections shall be delayed until 2018 however it doesn’t quite matter because the government will still effectively be controlled by the military.

Source: The Nation

Consumer spending

So another round of stimulus from the government, here are the details:

The tourism stimulus scheme will run from Dec 1 to Dec 31 and is expected to result in a multiplier effect worth 1 billion baht to the Thai economy, he said.

In April this year, the cabinet approved a renewal of stimulus measures for the tourism industry that included a 15,000-baht tax break on domestic tour packages and hotel accommodation for individual taxpayers, as well as for businesses and private individuals who provide training programmes for employees.

The scheme, which expired last December, runs until the end of this year and became effective retroactive from Jan 1.

So what? Well the hoteliers should benefit such as ERW, MINT, CENTEL, although given the size of the latter two perhaps ERW will be the biggest winner on a %age basis.

New elements

As a result, those yet to travel this year are eligible to enjoy up to 30,000 baht in deductions from taxable income spent on tour packages and hotel accommodations in 2016, Mr Nathaporn said.

Utterly unrelated to investments, in another life I may have became a chemist, but there are four new names/elements added to the periodic table so my inner geek became rather excited! Here are the names:

• Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113,
• Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115,
• Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117, and
• Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118.

Source: IUPAC