For now, investors go back to buying

TO THE long list of pundits who called the election all wrong - as well as its likely consequences - add Wall Street analysts. As the presidential election approached, they were falling all over themselves to predict a Hillary Clinton victory and, afterwards, a modest stockmarket rally. The prospect of a win by Donald Trump was so remote as to be deemed a "black swan", an event that was only distantly possible but would have potentially dire consequences for financial markets. Among the many predicting a drop in equity markets in the unlikely event of a Trump victory were analysts at Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Keith Parker, head of cross-asset strategy research at Barclays, forecast a drop of 11-13 per cent in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.

The hedge fund Bridgewater Associates went even further, warning clients that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would fall 2,000 points.

But then, not only did Mr Trump win, but US stocks rose. The S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all gained more than one per cent on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Dow rose about 1.2 per cent, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq was down 0.8 per cent. With the benefit of hindsight, what's extraordinary is how few professional investors saw it coming. Mr Trump was derided as the candidate of "uncertainty", which markets typically abhor, and many of his stated policies are vague, incoherent or inconsistent. But there was nothing uncertain about his overall pro-growth, pro-business and America-first tendencies, now backed by the firepower of a Republican House and