Bartiromo: Market Bounced Today Because Prez Race Tightened

October 23rd, 2008 4:35 PM

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on Thursday excitedly told viewers that an intra-day rally which had brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average from down about 275 to up over 170 was caused by rumors that the presidential race had tightened.

I wonder if these rumors will get reported by Obama-loving press members.

With about fifteen minutes to go in the trading session, the camera found a suddenly happy Bartiromo on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange gleefully saying the following (file photo):

Welcome back, down here on the floor with Dylan. Just walking around, hearing some rumors about one of the reasons that this market bounced off the bottom is there are rumors in the market, speculation that the race for the White House is getting tighter. And one trader telling us just moments ago that he thought the reason that the market was so low was when Obama had the lead because he's gonna raise taxes. And then when things got tighter, things bounced off the bottom. At some point you have to believe this market starts trading on the White House. [...]

Don't underestimate tax increases on capital gains. Capital gains at fifteen percent going to 28 percent, this market's gonna trade down if we see that. 

Wouldn't it be nice if other networks and press outlets actually had intelligent business reporters like Bartiromo willing to share what's happening each day on Wall Street?

After all, there have been many market watchers in the past five weeks claiming that part of the recent stock declines are the result of fear that Obama is going to win and that his tax policies will be very bad for business and therefore stock prices.

Whether folks are concerned about such things or not, isn't it media's job to report it?

Or is that too much like journalism?