Michael Townsend
Host at WashingtonWise Investor
Political analyst, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Helping investors understand how policy and politics in Washington affect the markets and your investments.
Articles
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1 week ago |
advisorperspectives.com | Michael Townsend
Other provisionsThe legislation passed by the House of Representatives includes spending cuts from many domestic programs while also boosting defense spending by $150 billion and spending for border security and immigration policy by nearly $50 billion.
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1 week ago |
schwab.com | Michael Townsend
Modal can be closed by pressing Escape key. MIKE TOWNSEND: For investors, 2025 has been quite the roller coaster. It's almost like we've experienced three entire market cycles—and it's only May. From the beginning of the year to the market high on February 19, the S&P 500® was up 4.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 4%. A solid start to the year, no question.
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1 month ago |
schwab.com | Michael Townsend
Modal can be closed by pressing Escape key. MIKE TOWNSEND: April 2025 was quite a month for investors. For the five-week period that began on March 31 and ended at the close of trading on May 2, the S&P 500® was up exactly 0.95%. But that hardly tells the story. Look beneath the surface of that essentially flat market, and we find a roller coaster. The S&P 500 dropped by more than 14.2% in a span of just six trading days, then rebounded 17.6% over the next 18 trading days.
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1 month ago |
advisorperspectives.com | Michael Townsend
Congress returns this week from the two-week Easter recess to face a critical stage in the crafting of the massive budget bill of tax cuts and spending cuts that forms the heart of the Republicans' legislative agenda. Up to now, Congress has been dealing with the broad outlines of that bill, setting the targets for how much in tax cuts and spending cuts should be included in the package. Now it is time to fill in the details.
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1 month ago |
schwab.com | Michael Townsend
MIKE TOWNSEND: Last week was a relatively calm one in Washington. Congress is taking a break, so there were no battles on Capitol Hill. And there were no major tariff announcements from the White House. That's probably a good thing, because everyone from members of Congress to foreign leaders to investors to shoppers is still trying to sort out the implications from the sweeping tariff plan the president unveiled earlier this month.
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Going on @SchwabNetwork to talk with @AlexCoffeyCS about what's next for the one big beautiful bill and more around 3:45 today.
My new WashingtonWise podcast dropped this morning. I have a great conversation with the fabulous @LizAnnSonders about the rollercoaster ride investors have been on in 2025. We talk tariffs, jobs numbers, GDP, inflation, recession risk, company earnings, the Fed and more. And
Something I've noticed in my travels the last couple months is a lot of confusion about how tariffs actually work. So I've got a new article called, cleverly, "What is a Tariff and How Does It Work?" Simple Q&A on tariff basics. Check it out here: https://t.co/S1MU3kfcQQ
