After a long, hard-fought campaign, Donald Trump has secured an election victory and will retake the White House in 2025. Regardless of their political preferences, all Americans must now consider how the incoming Trump administration will impact financial markets and their investment portfolios.
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Throughout his campaign, Trump has focused on several potential market-moving themes, including securing the border with Mexico, implementing aggressive tariffs on imports, supporting domestic oil and gas drilling, reducing regulations, cutting corporate taxes, and even investing in Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency mining. Here are eight stocks to buy that could be big winners under President Donald Trump:
— Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (ticker: DJT)
— MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR)
— Tesla Inc. (TSLA)
— GEO Group Inc. (GEO)
— Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)
— Intel Corp. (INTC)
— Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
— Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (DJT)
Trump Media & Technology Group is a media company focused on prioritizing free speech. It is the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, which was created in 2022 after Trump was kicked off Facebook and Twitter in 2021. Truth Social aims to serve as a safe harbor for free expression and create an alternative platform to those provided by Big Tech corporations. Throughout 2024, Trump Media’s stock has traded up or down based on Trump’s perceived campaign performance. Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media, so Truth Social almost certainly get plenty of promotion and visibility in the coming years.
MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR)
MicroStrategy’s core business is a business intelligence software platform, but cryptocurrency enthusiasts know the company because MicroStrategy is also the largest corporate investor in Bitcoin. As of September, the company held 252,220 BTC on its balance sheet, a stake worth about $18.7 billion at today’s Bitcoin prices. With the price of Bitcoin up about 76% this year, it’s easy to see why MicroStrategy shares have soared. Trump has pledged to support U.S. Bitcoin mining
and has even said he would consider establishing a strategic U.S. Bitcoin reserve. The higher Bitcoin prices rise, the higher MSTR stock will soar.
Tesla Inc. (TSLA)
Trump has been a staunch supporter of the U.S. auto industry in Detroit and has even said he would consider ending the government’s $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. At first glance, it would seem a Trump presidency would be very bad news for the EV industry and its leader Tesla. However, savvy Tesla CEO Elon Musk has done everything in his power to gain Trump’s favor in recent months, including endorsing him in speeches at campaign events. Trump has a long history of rewarding loyalty and praise, so Musk and Tesla may be surprising Trump winners.
GEO Group Inc. (GEO)
GEO is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in private prisons. The company’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing centers and U.S. Marshals Service detention centers could get a major bump from Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies, including potentially detaining undocumented immigrants already inside the U.S. Private prison stocks got a huge boost when Trump was first elected back in 2016. In fact, GEO’s stock jumped 21% the day after the election. When Trump performed well in the first 2024 debate, GEO had a similarly positive reaction, a potential preview of the next four years.
[Read: Election 2024: How Stocks Perform in Election Years]
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)
Exxon Mobil is the largest U.S. oil major. During his first term in office and throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump has been a strong advocate for domestic U.S. oil and gas production. He often uses the slogan “drill, baby, drill” as a rallying cry for the U.S. oil and gas industry. Trump has said he will remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change and deregulate the oil and gas industry, making drilling easier for companies like Exxon. Trump even chose former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state during his first term, though he later fired Tillerson after public disagreements between the two.
Intel Corp. (INTC)
Intel is the largest U.S. producer of microprocessors, central processing units for personal computers and many other semiconductor products. At this point, Intel needs all the help it can get in its attempt to turn around its struggling business. President Joe Biden made headlines for his CHIPS and Science Act, which provides subsidies for companies building foundries in the U.S. Alternatively, Trump plans to implement tariffs on imported chips, primarily from Taiwan. Intel is already building domestic foundries, and tariffs on imported chips could reduce its international competition. Intel shares rose after Trump discussed his chip tariffs on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
Wells Fargo is one of the largest U.S. banks, lending mostly within the U.S. market. During Trump’s first administration, he treated the banking industry well by supporting deregulation. That hands-off approach is good news to the entire U.S. banking industry, but it may be particularly good news for Wells Fargo. The bank is likely interested in getting out from under its punitive $1.9 trillion Federal Reserve asset cap that has been in place since 2018.
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
Lockheed Martin is one of the largest U.S. defense contractors. Conventional wisdom on Wall Street is that defense contractors benefit from Republican administrations. Bank of America recently said a Trump election victory coupled with a Republican-controlled Senate and a Democrat-controlled House would be a best-case scenario for defense spending. The firm estimates U.S. annualized defense spending growth could average 17% annually through 2027 in that scenario.
While control over the House of Representatives is still up in the air at the time of this writing, it’s hard to see how defense stocks could suffer if the GOP controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. Lockheed Martin is one of Trump’s largest donors, so its defense contract bids may get favorable treatment.
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