Investing.com - It’s been one year since Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States, and in that time, the stock market has made enormous gains. The Dow alone has gained more than 25%, going from 18,251 on the day of the election, to above 23,400 today.
During his campaign, Trump called the stock market a “big, fat, ugly bubble.” However, since his election, he often celebrates whenever markets reach new all-time highs.
Trump inherited a recovering US economy. GDP increased at a 3.1% annual rate in Q2, and that growth is expected to continue through the end of the year. The latest jobs report showed that unemployment is down to just 4.1%, and corporate earnings have been booming.
While markets climb at every bit of good news thrown their way, bad news has rarely held them down for more than a couple of days. Through the ongoing investigations of Russian interference in the elections, despite Hurricanes Harvey and Irma striking major US cities, and in the face of North Korea threatening all-out war, markets have just kept climbing.
Markets have also ignored Trump’s lack of headway in fulfilling many of his campaign promises, including repealing Obamacare and immigration reform.
Markets could still be hopeful that Trump’s tax reform and plans for expanding infrastructure spending will pass. But with stock markets relishing every bit of positive sentiment and almost completely disregarding anything negative, it looks like the stock market highs might have less to do with Trump’s achievements as President, and more to do with corporate profits and a healthy US economy.
Or, it could actually be a “big, fat, ugly bubble,” like Trump originally claimed.