Trump learns a lesson on markets

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

Most presidents avoid boasting about a rising stock market because they know how fragile it is, and how little control over stock prices they have, and how stock prices can move sharply for reasons outside their control, or sometimes for no clear reason at all.

The cost of claiming personal credit for market gains comes when you get market losses. That is particularly relevant after a 7 per cent drop in the S&P 500 since its peak last week, seemingly caused by a recognition on Wall Street that the spread of coronavirus could disrupt the world economy.

The outbreak of the virus and its spread was not something Donald Trump could have prevented.

But even as public health warn that many Americans may become infected, his administration has devoted lots of effort to talking up the stock market.

If the selloff continues, it could undermine a key pillar of the president’s re-election pitch. That might be less of an issue if Trump had not so frequently spoken of the stock market as a realtime barometer of his presidency’s success.

But there’s more at stake than public relations. There’s also the risk that the administration’s focus on the optics of the market distracts them from the bigger task at hand – trying to protect against the potential spread of disease and loss of life that would accompany a global pandemic.