HOUSTON – Stronger oil prices and the Trump administration’s pro-energy stance could be very good for the Houston economy, says financial broadcast journalist Tyler Mathisen.
Mathisen, keynote speaker at Colliers International’s Trends 2017 event at the Houston Country Club Tuesday night, said President Donald Trump is putting pro-growth stamp on the nation in his first days in office.
Trump completely replaced the White House website after he was sworn-in as president, he said, and energy industry is now emphasized prominently on the website.
Mathisen noted that Trump signed a presidential order Tuesday to move ahead on the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to southeast Texas, a project that had been blocked by President Obama.
Mathisen said West Texas Intermediate is expected to hover in the $50 to $60 a barrel range in 2017. Oil had dipped below $30 a barrel in early 2016.
“The worst of the oil downturn has most certainly passed,” Mathisen said. “Job growth is going to pick up in Houston.”
“Houston could be in for a golden era of growth,” said Mathisen, host of CNBC’s Power Lunch program and co-anchor of the Nightly Business Report.
Noting that ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson has left the energy firm to become Secretary of State, Mathisen joked that the new president’s administration could be called “Trump, Tillerson & Associates.”
“There is an aggressive business-friendly administration in place in Washington today,” said Mathisen.
Trump will be deeply focused on economic growth, but it’s too soon to tell if the growth will materialize and translate into an extended bull market on Wall Street.
The stock market surged last fall immediately after Trump was elected in what some called a “Trump Bump.” NASDAQ, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones index have all pushed toward record highs in recent days.
“There’s a lot of anticipation built into the market,” he said.
But Mathisen cautioned Colliers’ standing-room-only audience that the market could have a pull back. The stock market has been improving for years, following the end of the Great Recession and something could end the momentum.
Unrest in the Middle East, aggressive activity by Russia or some kind of unforeseen circumstances could derail America’s growth era, he said.
Plus, Mathisen said, the exact impact of Trump’s proposed tax cuts are unknown and no one knows how many of Trump’s agenda of initiatives – such as unraveling the NAFTA trade agreement – will be enacted.
Mathisen, who has won an Emmy Award for his reporting, said the Federal Reserve will probably move to raise interest rates three times in 2017.
Jan. 25, 2017 Realty News Report Copyright 2017