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Strategas Research Partners' Daniel Clifton and team argue that a new highway spending bill could provide a big boost to industrial companies like Vulcan Materials (VMC), Dycom (DY), Quanta Services (PWR), Jacobs Engineering Group (JEC) and Martin Marietta Materials (MLM). They explain why:

The House and Senate both passed multi-year highway spending bills. The big difference between the two bills is how to pay for the additional spending. The House bill raids the Federal Reserve’s emergency accounts. The Senate bill reduces the 6% dividend the Federal Reserve pays to banks. Bridging this difference and the level of spending are the key differences between the negotiators. Some compromise will be reached. But we are no longer debating whether to do a multi-year spending bill. We will likely have at least three years of highway funding and could have as many as five years of spending. The multi-year extension should give certainty to state and local governments for other investments.

Clifton created a basket of 20 stocks that should benefit from the increased spending: