WITH FOUR DAYS TO GO TO the election, Donald Trump is grasping at straws. But the straw he’s been clinging to for much of his presidency might be slipping through his fingers.
Since he took office in 2017, Trump has claimed credit for economic success and stock market records. And though the economy appears on a better track than months ago, with gross domestic product up 33.1% in the last quarter, stocks are proving more stubborn.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was on track Friday to close out its worst week and month since March as coronavirus cases surge and the presidential candidates scramble to make their last appeal to voters.
The sell-off is bleak news for Trump, who has held up the success of the markets as the most important measure of his job performance and promised that the U.S. is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.
The record jump in GDP in the third quarter and an encouraging jobs report did almost nothing to reverse the hemorrhaging Thursday, illustrating the depth of investors’ concerns.
Stocks tumbled Wednesday as daily coronavirus cases hit a new high and prospect for another coronavirus stimulus package in the near future petered out. Fresh coronavirus-related lockdowns in Europe and uncertainty ahead of the presidential election have also made investors wary.
Stocks fell off a cliff-edge in March during coronavirus lockdowns but have gradually recovered. This week’s losses threaten to reverse that trend.
The economy is the most important issue for voters heading into the election, polls show. It was for months one of the only major issues on which Trump held an advantage with voters over Biden, but polling this month shows Biden now edging out the president on the issue.
Trump’s campaign has attempted to make it the focal point of the election, touting the strength of the pre-election economy and the ongoing recovery from the coronavirus-induced recession. Biden has in response hammered Trump’s handling of the pandemic as the cause behind the economy’s woes.
By early afternoon Friday, the Dow was down 7.2% on the week, and 5% overall for the month of October – a drop that, if it holds, is the biggest since stocks plummeted in March amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns.
The S&P 500, the broadest measure of Wall Street, similarly continued to slide Friday, and was on track for its worst week since at least June. If losses continue throughout the day, the index could see its worst week since March.
The Nasdaq composite is also poised for its first week since the beginning of the pandemic.
