President Trump has been very busy today.  This morning, he met with top executives from major U.S. corporations reiterating his pledge to reduce regulations, which he stated have “gotten out of control” by 75% or “maybe more.” Trump continued with his promises to cut taxes “down to anywhere from 15-20%” from 35% and to reward American companies that manufacture their goods here while imposing hefty border taxes for those that don’t.

From there, Trump was off to sign 3 executive orders:

1. Intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
2. Hiring freeze on all Federal government jobs, with the exception of the military
3. Reaffirm law banning foreign nongovernmental organizations from paying for or promoting abortion

The markets have been range bound today, but all of the major indices are in the red as investors look for more direction and details from the new administration.  Energy and industrials lag, while decliners led advancers 1598 to 1290 on the NYSE and 1888 to 896 on the NASDAQ.  WTI is down to $52.83 as a recovery in U.S. drilling activity out shadows output reductions from OPEC and non-OPEC producers.   

Gold continued its upward trek reaching a two month high while the dollar is down again calling into question whether President Trump is for a strong or a weak dollar policy.  U.S. Treasury rates are down with the 10-year at 2.395 on concerns of protectionist policies in making “America first.” 

President Trump has been in reversal mode.  Perhaps, he will be able to help Aetna and Humana.  Federal Judge John Bates just blocked the proposed merger deal, saying it violates anti-trust laws and substantially lessen competition.  Judge Bates wrote "The government identified 364 counties across 21 states where it argues that concentration in the Medicare Advantage market would rise above the presumptively unlawful level if the merger proceeds, and 17 counties across 3 states where that would be true in the public exchange markets.”  Aetna is considering appealing.  Both Aetna and Humana shares are down on the news.

Let’s see how the rest of the session goes.