Wall Street has been pricing in an infrastructure bill since the White House unveiled the American Jobs Plan in April. When agreement came this past week, the rally continued.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1% on Thursday, and the S&P 500 Industrial Sector added about 0.8%, both outpacing the broader market, as President Joe Biden announced that he had come to an agreement with a group of Republican and Democratic senators on an infrastructure package of roughly $600 billion. And the industrial outperformance continued on Friday.
The package includes some $300 billion for roads, bridges, and other major transportation projects. An additional $266 billion includes water infrastructure, broadband, and power infrastructure. The spending is part of a larger package of approved spending that totals about $1.2 trillion over an eight-year period. The infrastructure bill must still be approved by Congress before Biden can sign it.
Other priorities that Biden had outlined, such as more spending on child-care initiatives, will have to be pursued in a separate package devoted to “human infrastructure,” probably by using the budget reconciliation process in the Senate, where Democrats hold a tie-breaker vote. The bipartisan agreement would probably be tied to the reconciliation bill, as Biden has said he wants both on his desk at the same time.
Still, agreement on the physical infrastructure spending is a victory for political comity, the economy, and potentially a range of stocks and market sectors. “Roughly $600 billion in new spending for roads, bridges, public transit, and broadband as well as a host of other areas would likely be considered a ‘win’ for the White House,” Wells Fargo economist Michael Pugliese said in a note. “As in baseball, a win does not always have to be a home run. Sometimes it pays to just get on base.”
One way to play for further upside in the bipartisan deal is the package’s emphasis on expanding broadband, says Josh Duitz, who runs the $185 million Aberdeen Standard Global Infrastructure Income fund (ticker: ASGI). As of May 31, his portfolio’s holdings included American Tower(AMT). He added that Ferrovial(FER.Spain), a global infrastructure company that builds roads and other projects, would also benefit from the package. It’s another of his holdings. “This is just one more positive catalyst for infrastructure,” Duitz said.
Analysts at Stifel, meanwhile, believe the deal “generates significant upside” for machinery, construction materials, and rental companies.
Stifel said that the beneficiaries of the infrastructure bill include these five companies:Astec Industries(ASTE), whose products include asphalt and concrete;Martin Marietta Materials(MLM), which makes construction materials;Construction Partners(ROAD), which builds roadways;United Rentals(URI); and Vulcan Materials(VMC), which makes construction materials.
Separately on Friday, Jefferies upgraded Martin Marietta Materials and Vulcan Materials to Buy from Hold. It also raised the price targets to $424 and $207, respectively.
Stifel expects other companies to benefit, as well. Those include Caterpillar(CAT),Deere(DE),Manitowoc(MTW),Oshkosh(OSK), and Terex(TEX)—“each of which sells machinery into the infrastructure” market.