Day 1,150: Trump bragged about stock market going up Friday despite it being one of its worst weeks and months in history

The stock market’s response to the coronavirus and the Trump administration’s feckless actions has been overwhelmingly negative and incredibly volatile.

For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average narrowly avoided its worst weekly loss in history with a late Friday rally. Donald Trump celebrated the gains with a Saturday tweet, touting the positive history of the moment.

In reality, even after Friday’s rally the Dow was still 1.5% behind where it closed on Wednesday. For the week, the Dow still took a 10% pummeling and is down over 20% for the month, the fastest such fall in history. (The losses are roughly the same for both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ.)

As the number of coronavirus cases continues to surge both worldwide and the U.S., Trump taking a victory lap during an already horrific week is remarkably short-sighted.

Beyond just the stock market, the lagging indicators are still looming in the coming weeks and months. Among other industries, tourism and hospitality are getting especially crushed. People aren’t traveling and are being careful with their disposal income. Additional social distancing and quarantining will further hurt businesses and, in turn, workers. As a result, revenue is expected to sharply decline and unemployment is expected to rise for many industries.

The day-to-day volatility in the market reflects substantial nervousness from investors. The huge sell-off and surrounding facts and fundamentals has many financial analysts predicting a full-blown recession in the coming months.

But, as Trump often does, he’s focused on a singular conifer, and he fails to see the forest for the trees.

1,150 days in, 312 to go

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