News Of Steve Bannon’s Firing Elicited Cheers From Stock Market Traders

As soon as the news of President Donald Trump’s decision to fire White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon broke on Friday, everyone practically erupted in a collective tweet storm of joy. So too did many of the day traders at the New York Stock Exchange, where a live CNBC report discussing Bannon’s firing caught audio of what sounded like a loud chorus of cheers in the background. According to CNBC’s report and additional digging by The Daily Beast, it seems Wall Street was just as happy to hear about Bannon’s departure as everyone else — especially since the markets subsequently rebounded after the day’s losses.

Per CNBC, the S&P 500 was down by 5 points when the news first broke just before noon, but “promptly rallied 7 points in a matter of minutes and another 5 points over the next hour.” Subsequent confirmations of Bannon’s ousting bolstered the S&P further by another 5 points the following hour. As for the cheers heard during the live broadcast, sources were later mixed with some ascribing the chorus to the Bannon news and others claiming it “was due to the departure of a colleague.”

Empire Executions President Peter Costa told The Daily Beast he thought the cheers happened because of “the rumor of Steve Bannon getting fired.” He added, “There’s a lot of hopeful people thinking that, ‘you know what, he has been a divisive figure in the White House… Getting rid of him might be a good deal for the president.” Even so, as Mark Luschini Chief Investment Strategist Mark Luschini explained to Reuters, “There are still question marks on what this means and what other shoes are to drop, like other personnel of note.” In other words, as much as Wall Street apparently liked Friday’s news, caution abounds.

So much for Bannon’s Goldman Sachs glory days.

(Via CNBC, The Daily Beast and Reuters)

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