As he returned to Washington on Thursday evening, President Trump offered an assessment of the tumultuous week in the markets, saying that things have come out because it is “just about even.”
Trading for the week, of course, is not entirely over – and stocks opened lower on Friday – but the president assessed that “the market reaction was good” to his week of threats and withdrawals of whirlwind tariffs.
It’s “pretty even, right?” he said.
In fact, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is poised to end the week trading four days lower after Tuesday’s heavy losses. It could be a second consecutive week of losses as the relief that lifted stocks on Wednesday and Thursday appears to be wearing off.
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The president’s remarks as he returned from the World Economic Forum however showed the close attention he continues to give to the financial impacts of his move.
Trump also noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is approaching 50,000, and he kept his focus on the positive performance on Wednesday and Thursday.
The brief comments from the president, part of a wide-ranging back-and-forth with reporters Thursday night, were just the latest market commentary in a week where the president’s actions have moved markets even more dramatically than usual.
The president roused the markets on Wednesday during his speech in Davos, noting that “our stock market took its first dip yesterday” but brushing it off. It is predicted that “the stock market will double in a relatively short period of time because of everything that is happening.”
Observers quickly dismissed the doubling as happening anytime soon, with Slatestone Wealth chief market strategist Kenny Polcari comparing Trump’s comments to “noise” in an interview on Yahoo Finance.
“It’s useless,” he said. “It doesn’t really do anything.”
In total, Trump weighed on the markets in some form every day between Monday and Thursday. On Monday and Tuesday, he broke previous highs and again blamed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for the markets not being higher.
At one point Thursday, he even called the Federal Reserve “discredited.”
While Trump has focused heavily on the markets this week, some administration officials have tried to play down how much the ups and downs factor into his decision-making.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied to Politico that Trump’s decision to back away from 10% additional tariffs on eight European nations over the Greenland issue was caused by price swings.