Presidential election has Wall Street paying attention

It seems like everyone in the world thinks they get a vote in the upcoming US presidential election. Or at least to comment on it.

China, Britain and the European Union all have opinions on the candidates. That’s how important this election is.

With all that international chatter, the stock market has developed a tremor of anxiety over the presidential election as well.

While hyperbole is not a strategy, and campaign promises are not policy, the three principal candidates can take some blame for equities falling since the beginning of the year.

Donald Trump from the Republican side and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have made major rumblings that have in turn created tremendous volatility in the financial markets, something not endearing any of them to the voters they’ll need in November if they make it to the big dance.

The markets initially didn’t take Bernie very seriously. But as each day goes by, he remains too close to Clinton for comfort.

As Sanders assaulted pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for essentially making a profit, they sold off hard. When Clinton then joined Sanders in protest about drug prices being too high, stocks in those same companies got crushed, with the S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF down 17.9 percent year to date and the I-Shares Biotechnology ETF IBB down 23.5 percent year to date.

Trump — the billionaire businessman — has one major theme that doesn’t align well with the markets and the global economy: China.

Since China holds over $1 trillion of US Treasurys, Trump, as president, would need to smooth things over with China and finesse a mutually beneficial relationship — the balance he has achieved in his many business dealings.

Most Americans care about the value of their 401(k)s and many will vote for who they feel will better serve the markets.