The stock market has performed well under Trump – but it has not been historically excellent

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Between Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and Tuesday, his last full day in office, S&P 500 (SPX), the largest measure of the US stock market, rose by 67%.
Trump has often proclaimed market records Twitter (TWTR), seeing them as the realization of his administration.

“Now the stock market is actually substantially larger than it was at its highest point before the pandemic,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Wednesday.

He is right that the shares are currently being traded on record territory and therefore at a higher level than before the pandemic. However, market performance during his tenure was not a record.

Under President Barack Obama, the S&P 500 rose 85 percent during his first term after hitting rock bottom in March 2009 during the financial crisis. During President Bill Clinton’s first term, the index rose 79 percent.

Shares initially rallied at Trump’s election as Corporate America focused on its pro-business agenda, which included tax cuts, deregulation and promises of infrastructure spending.

And the economy was strong, contributing to fueling market growth.

But then came the trends that were negative for action: geopolitical concerns, including rising tensions with North Korea and the trade war with China. The latter dominated the strategy’s vision of US action in the middle of Trump’s term. But it was only after the pandemic that the longest bullfighting market in history officially ended.

Under Joe Biden, who was sworn in as president on Wednesday, the stock market should occupy a less important place on the White House’s list of priorities.

“The idea that the stock market is booming is his only measure of what’s happening,” Biden said of Trump in the final presidential debate in October. “Where they come from in Scranton and Claymont, people don’t live on the stock market.”

Over the summer, Trump said the market will “disintegrate” if not re-elected, but stocks have risen to new highs since Biden’s victory.
Analysts expect higher earnings per share this year as the economy recovers from the pandemic crisis. Consumer-oriented cyclical businesses usually perform well during a recovery, and the promise of a large infrastructure plan could increase construction and production stocks.

On Wednesday, Biden’s first day in office, all three major US stock indices ended the day at historic highs.

Biden never made any promises about how well the stock market would fare during his tenure, and that is unlikely to change now that he has been sworn in.

– CNN’s Matt Egan and Annalyn Kurtz contributed to this story.

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