*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).
Amazon may have met the David to its Goliath in the epic battle for Long Island City ー provided that Gov. Cuomo doesn't stand in his way. State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents New York's 12th district, including Amazon's planned Long Island City outpost, said the tech giant's plan ー promising 25,000 jobs in exchange for billions in city funds ー doesn't even merit negotiation.
When President Trump addresses a joint sessions of Congress on Tuesday night ー the third such event of his presidency ー the most notable deviation from past speeches will be sitting just over his left shoulder. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now ruling over a House Democratic majority ー including a boisterous class of progressive freshmen representatives elected in part as a rebuke to the Trump presidency.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Feb. 4, 2019.
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.
What government shutdown? Friday's jobs report showed a blockbuster 304,000 jobs were added in the month of January, despite fears that the partial government shutdown would weigh on the job market. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent, as more Americans rejoined the labor pool. "This economy is now really firing on all cylinders," said Steve Moore, distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "There's nothing negative about this."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday Jan. 31, 2019.
Markets surged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced it would leave interest rates unchanged. In a statement that was released following the conclusion of the Fed's quarterly, two-day meeting, the central bank said it would maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 2.25 to 2.5 percent.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.
