Hello and welcome to the Bulletin with UBS on Monocle Radio.
Each week, the sharpest minds and freshest thinkers in finance take you beyond the numbers and hype right to the heart of the big issues of the day.
In this show, we're following up last week's edition which looked ahead to a busy H2 and in particular the US presidential election in November.
They say a week is a long time in politics, and the last seven days have certainly shown that to be true.
Since we recorded the program, incumbent President Joe Biden has announced that he'll not stand for re election and will instead serve until his successor takes over.
Biden threw his support behind his VP Kamala Harris.
So what does this mean for the race and what does that in turn mean for investors as we tick towards November?
Well, we're in a very fortunate position to have two of the best and brightest from UBS with us on this week's show to hopefully explain.
It's a pleasure to welcome back to the Show Both Tom McLaughlin, Senior Fixed Income strategist, and also David Lefkowitz, head of U.S.
equities.
Tom McLaughlin, David Lefkowitz, welcome to the program.
Tom, let me come to you.
First of all, obviously.
Well, it's been a very kind of febrile few weeks at the sharp end of US Politics.
Obviously, President Biden announced previous weekend that he would not run for reelection in November.
I guess, first of all, just take us back.
What was your initial reaction as that news broke kind of later on last Sunday as it was, what were your first thoughts, Tom?
Well, Tom, it wasn't a terrible surprise, I suppose, because the president had begun to lose support among the Democratic faithful, the rank and file who were concerned that he was losing ground in the polls to former President Trump.
And there was more and more talk as to whether or not he was physically capable of withstanding the rigors of another four years in office.
So the announcement, the timing of the announcement was uncertain and it was not an absolute certainty that he would withdraw.