The biggest driver for the markets in the past week has been the increased likelihood of getting some sort of tax reform bill passed before Christmas. As of Thursday’s close, the technology sector had gained more than 1.2% over the prior five trading days, reversing its slide earlier in the month. Telecom gained nearly 2.0% and Consumer Discretionary over 1.1% while Materials, Utilities and Financials lost ground. That being said, the S&P 500 ended Thursday on a less upbeat note, declining the most in one day since mid-November. Factoring in the move, the S&P 500 was on track to finish the week up roughly 6% quarter to date, which equates to it trading at more than 20x consensus 2017 EPS expectations.

While the market has been near-euphoric over the potential for tax reform, Tuesday’s elections made passage more challenging as Democrat Doug Jones won the historically red state of Alabama. Republicans now hold a mere 51-49 advantage in the Senate. Following a tight election, the Alabama votes now need to be certified, which will not occur until after Christmas, but no later than January 3. If the Republicans can push this bill through, as promised, before Christmas, the Republican incumbent Luther Strange will be voting instead of Doug Jones. If the vote gets delayed until 2018, we may see a split 50-50 vote since Republican Bob Corker is likely to oppose the bill. This would require Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie, that is unless one more Republican decides to defect. Talk about getting some political leverage.

Aside from the excitement over tax reform, the mind-boggling price explosion that is Bitcoin got even more interesting this week as Bitcoin futures began trading on the CBOE on Sunday night. Unsurprisingly, it was an eventful debut with two temporary trading halts and crashes on the CBOE’s website due to the heavy traffic. Expect to hear a lot more from us in the coming months concerning the evolving cryptocurrency landscape as part of our Cashless Consumption investing theme. Despite the downplay they received by Fed Chair Janet Yellen during this week’s FOMC press conference, these technologies have the potential to utterly disrupt the way the global economy works, creating just the kind of tailwind we like to see for those companies properly positioned.