Democratic Sweep Reassuring for Fed Independence

0915 GMT - The key takeaway of Democrats winning the Senate is a check to Trump's inability to nominate key members in institutions like the Supreme Court or the Fed, says Samy Chaar at Lombard Odier. "Fed independence is won, in a way. That's an uncertainty that you can remove," the chief economist says. "Checks and balances, the independence of agencies, the Fed, nominations at the Supreme Court matter a lot, right?" Fiscal policy is likely to stay on sort of autopilot. A lot of spending was brought forward, so Lombard sees fiscal policy from now on as being mildly contractionary. Chaar sees room for compromise on issues like government funding, increasing the debt ceiling and AI regulation. Trade policy and tariffs, meanwhile, remain in the hands of the president.