*By Brian Henry*
Even as British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered an embarrassing defeat as her Brexit vote was voted down in Parliament, and then only narrowly survived a no-confidence vote, investors remained relatively unrattled.
According to Chris Demetriou, the U.S. CEO at Aberdeen Standard Investments, the mild response to the vote was not a surprise.
"There are two elements to it," he told Cheddar Wednesday.
"The vote \[Tuesday\] and the no confidence vote \[Wednesday\] weren't really a surprise to anybody. It's long been speculated Theresa May didn't have the votes to carry the deal through Parliament."
Demetriou said that the decision by British lawmakers to reject the Brexit deal by such a historic margin ー 432 to 202 ーearlier this week actually has investors feeling confident.
"The resounding defeat, the size of the defeat, really suggests that a tweak to the deal probably isn't going to help get it through either. I think that, perhaps, is giving investors confidence that the can will be kicked down the road or potentially even a more formal withdrawal of Article 15."
"Investors want as a little change as possible in the current arrangement," he added.
Demetriou says productive trade talks between the U.S. and China as well as the Federal Reserve displaying patience on future rate hikes have led to less market volatility.
"A lot of the uncertainty we saw in the back end of the year, the escalation of trade discussions, perhaps concern around fed policy coming into 2019 ー a lot of that has reversed in the beginning of January."
But will the relative market peace last?
"There's a lot of positive news or certainly constructive news out there to offset some of the uncertainty that exists," Demetriou said.
"We do expect continued uncertainty, which breeds volatility in the markets and that will continue throughout the year."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-uk-government-survives-no-confidence-vote-after-brexit-defeat).
Stocks are inching higher on Wall Street Monday in more volatile trading as investors try to assess whether global authorities can do enough to nurse the economy through the damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through April, bowing to public health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding coronavirus pandemic.
Trump said that the order will “require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators." In a statement, he said the contracting process with the automaker was not moving quickly enough.
President Donald Trump has signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law, after swift and near-unanimous action by Congress this week.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Stocks are moving lower on Wall Street as the market gives back some of the gains it piled up over the past three days. Major indexes are down more than 2% in afternoon trading Friday.
Restaurants are getting creative with private solutions as they hope to continue doing business, even while most of them are physically closed to the public, but the potential for saving most of these businesses may be a long shot.
Healthcare workers have launched their own campaigns for gathering personal protective equipment as they fight the coronavirus on the frontlines, with #GetUsPPE trending across social media.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package Friday afternoon, but what was expected to be a smooth confirmation process devolved into a mad dash in the Capitol after one of the House’s own threatened to derail the vote with a procedural objection.
Despite President Donald Trump’s call to put the economy back to work by Easter, one Johns Hopkins physician says there may have to be “variability” in when states and cities restart their economies.
