Remember when kill-billers and concern trolls like Joe Scarborough were pointing to health insurance stocks reaching a 52-month high as soon as Ben Nelson pledged to vote for the Senate bill?
This was supposed to be an indication that the insurance companies, and their shareholders, loved the bill. The further implication was that this meant the Senate bill was a corporatist-friendly bill that the cartel loved, loved, loved.
Well, what's this...
Today, healthcare stocks rose with news that Scott Brown might win and the Democrats would lose their 60 vote majority and healthcare reform might suffer.
Wall Street is already betting that a Republican win in Massachusetts will complicate efforts to get a strong health care reform package through Congress.
Six major health insurance company stocks went up Tuesday as pundits and reporters began writing off the candidacy of the state Attorney General Martha Coakley. Republican State Senator Scott Brown appears to have won before the votes have even been counted.
Investors are counting on it.
So what is it? Does the market like healthcare reform, or do they want to kill it?
How about this: the whole stock market litmus test for reform is mostly horseshit.