Investors in marijuana companies are an optimistic bunch; they need to be, as the industry is beset by struggles, and even its most prominent companies routinely post net losses.
That's why they tend to trade weed stocks up whenever even slightly positive news hits the headlines, as occurred on Monday. The relatively prominent Curaleaf (CURLF 2.42%) saw a decent-sized pop of more than 2% to its share price that day on a fresh development in the political sphere. That was good enough to beat the essentially flatlining S&P 500 index that trading session.
The president endorses a pot proponent
President Donald Trump, not exactly a determined and vocal advocate of marijuana law reform, has endorsed one such politician for an important position. He hyped Florida State Senator Joe Gruters as an ideal candidate for chairman of the powerful Republican National Committee (RNC).
Image source: Getty Images.
Current Chairman Michael Whatley is stepping down from his post to run for one of the two U.S. Senate seats in North Carolina. Trump has also endorsed Whatley.
Gruters is an active and vocal proponent of marijuana legalization to the point where he sponsored a bill in the Florida Senate earlier this year to allow medical cannabis patients in the state to grow their own pot plants. That bill, however, was quashed by the Senate's health policy committee.
Every win counts
If Gruters were to win the top RNC job, pot proponents would certainly count it as a win. However, it would likely be a minor one. True change on the federal level has to come from influential federal lawmakers, and Gruters won't be high enough to move the needle on his own.
Still, even small victories count in the marijuana business, and investors were right to be guardedly optimistic about this one.
