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This election cycle has been trying, perhaps the most painful in history and certainly the most painful in recent memory. Some companies have even laid blame on the election cycle for poor consumer spending over the last few months, less travel, and a general lack of confidence in the market.
Some 80 companies have brought the election up as a way to explain smaller than expected sales or growth.
Dunkin Brands, for example, has seen less franchise expansion than expected. CEO Nigel Travis cited confusion over what local economies are going to look like over the next few years. He also mentioned the rallying cry of raising the minimum wage, which could directly impact franchises’ bottom line.
However, the companies reporting this, as cited in the Fortune article which brought it up, haven’t really seem particularly bad losses. In fact, the downward trend in consumer spending over the last few months only amounts to about 0.1 percent.
Others think that this is merely an excuse because this has been a difficult election year.
One indicator that the election has not been bad for business is that on November 11, 2016, after a precipitous drop immediately following the presidential election, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 18,823.
Markets both within the U.S. and around the world are still very volatile while investors try to find their feet. CNBC reports that there have been gains in the value of the dollar against other currencies.
The dollar’s “resurgence was also complimented by the renewed speculations of the Federal Reserve raising U.S. interest rates in December that encouraged buyers to attack,” says Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst at FXTM. “This week’s aggressive dollar rebound may be fully Trump-driven with more time needed for the Greenback to find some normality.”
While the election has certainly impacted American society in ways both good and ill, the impact on consumer spending has not been that high. With stock markets and the dollar climbing steadily, the odds are good that whatever losses happened earlier this year will be more than offset by increased consumer and investor confidence.
