The President just said in a Saturday (2 p.m. EDT) televised speech that he's made the decision to strike Syria, but he will (like the failed vote in UK parliament), ask US Congress to vote on authorization of "Use of Force" before sending any order to initiate a strike.
As we know Congress is quite splintered and this may be a tough vote, but more interestingly, Congress is not due back for at least 10-days so it seems unless they return early (which there was no indication of), this sets off any potential action for nearly another two weeks. While the President says he doesn't care (essentially) what the UN finds, he sure is giving them a lot of time to make their findings known. Very few Presidents have sought congressionally authority for strikes MUCH LARGER in scope than this one, it seems odd after the US key ally, Great Britain failed to stand with the US for the first time in hundreds of years.
My initial gut feeling is that Obama backed himself in to a corner almost a year ago when he said the use of chemical weapons was a red line that can't be crossed, now that it appears it has been crossed, no US allies including NATO are willing to stand with the US and he seems to be having "Sentiment remorse".
I would think the market will initially take this news very well as any potential action seems to have been put off almost two weeks, it was only when "imminent action" seemed inevitable that the market reacted badly, after that when each day the use of force was walked back a little further, the market's sentiment seemed to improve, this may be exactly what is needed to get a nice bounce/rally underway.
However the market still hates uncertainty and while the President said he's ask for a vote in Congress, he did not say he'd abide by one, he said he "Already made the decision to strike" first and foremost in the press conference, so in the weeks ahead or an early return of Congress, the market may again get jittery about "Uncertainty", for now though, other than perhaps an initial knee-jerk, I think this gives the market the green light to rally.
5 years ago
