There’s trouble in market paradise. By all accounts, progress on the tax cuts should be propelling equities higher. After all, the tax deal was supposed to be a “free call option” on further gains.

And as far as “Mueller risk” goes, that was always lurking in the background and while we think it should have been cause for some kind of correction by now, that hasn’t materialized just like none of the other myriad political risks have managed to knock this market’s hustle so why should it start now? Perhaps – just perhaps – some folks are starting to come to terms with the idea that “Mueller risk” has morphed into “impeachment risk.”

U.S. HOUSE HAS ENOUGH VOTES TO REJECT EFFORT TO IMPEACH TRUMP

that’s ok. give him another week to tweet himself out of office. he’s trying hard.

— Walter White (@heisenbergrpt) December 6, 2017

Meanwhile, the tech jitters are palpable even if the rout took a break in the U.S. on Wednesday. One issue with this idea that tech (and growth in general) is going to be able to pass the baton to the sectors that would benefit the most from tax cuts is that the market leadership shoes are big ones to fill. So the question becomes whether the “rotation” everyone’s talking about can possibly be a net positive. What seems more likely is that while some sectors will get a lift and while portfolios positioned to benefit disproportionately from the passage of the GOP tax bill will indeed outperform, the broad market isn’t going to be able to stomach any kind of a drawdown in the big-cap tech names that have acted like Atlas when it comes to holding up the entire world.

The hope is that if, as Bloomberg’s Dani Burger (now the “best Burger in London”) contends, this is a factor freakout, then the weakness in tech will be short-lived once whoever (or whatever algo) is behind the systematic flows gets done doing whatever the hell it’s doing.

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