Three healthcare stocks — Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG), Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND), and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) — could be big winners with Donald Trump as president, the Motley Fool reports.
"Celgene could be a smart pick if Trump becomes president because the main reason the stock has recently stumbled is that Hillary Clinton has promised to lower the period for exclusivity of biologics and allow federal watchdogs to fine drugmakers for price increases found to be objectionable," the Fool explained. "Those plans are enough to make shareholders of any biotech stock nervous. A Trump win should make biotech stocks great again," the Fool said.
Ligand stands to gain from a Trump victory. "Buying shares of Ligand is almost like buying a fund of biotech stocks. Ligand's fortunes aren't dependent on one drug; the company's portfolio is diversified across numerous target indications and partners," the Fool said.
Finally, one of Trump's primary healthcare proposals is to allow health insurers to compete across state lines. "If he's able to make this happen, UnitedHealth Group could be one of the biggest beneficiaries," the Fool reported.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's prospects brightened after the FBI said it would not press criminal charges against her over the use of a private email server.
The FBI said on Sunday it stood by its July finding that Clinton was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing, after announcing on Oct. 28 it was reviewing additional emails relating to her use of a private server while secretary of state.
While polls last week showed Trump had been closing the gap, at least five major polls on Monday showed Clinton still had the lead in the race for the White House.
Investors have tended to see Clinton as a more status quo candidate. On the other hand, Trump's stance on foreign policy, trade and immigration has unnerved the market.
"I don't see another 5 percent bump on a Clinton win, but I could see a 5 to 7 percent pullback on a Trump win," Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina, told Reuters.
However, former Reagan economic adviser David Stockman warns that the stock market is doomed regardless who wins the White House. He says the savvy stock investor will sell everything before the politics hit the fan.
"The markets are hideously inflated," Stockman recently warned CNBC. The former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan urged investors to dump stocks and bonds ahead of the dangers that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton pose to markets if either is elected as President.
"If you don't sell before the election, certainly do it afterwards. Government is going to be totally paralyzed regardless of who wins," he said. "There could be a 25 percent draw down on markets," he predicted.
Stockman isn't alone in his dire predictions of market chaos after the election. But other financial gurus think Trump winning the White House would cause a stock-market collapse.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he has his "Trump hedge on." In a recent interview on Fox Business Network anchor Neil Cavuto's show "Coast to Coast," the "Sharktank" reality TV personality warned: "In the event Donald wins, I have no doubt in my mind the market tanks."
But not all gurus are as pessimistic as Cuban and Stockman.
Wells Capital Management's Jim Paulsen predicts that the stock market will literally end the year with a bang as it charges into 2017. "I think we're going to maybe find out we are finally turning northward on earnings momentum," Paulsen, Wells’ chief investment strategist, told CNBC.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.