Market Blog

1/20/2021

Today Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States. We’ve already looked forward at what his presidency, coupled with a blue wave in Congress, could mean for policy in Market Policy Projections for 2021, so today we take a look back at how stocks performed under President Donald Trump.

As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) gained approximately 56% during Trump’s four years in office, which comes out to an annualized return of an impressive 11.8%. “President Trump’s annualized Dow return of 11.8% was the best for any Republican president since President Calvin Coolidge in the Roaring Twenties,” explained LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick. “This was still below the annualized returns of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.”

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Over the past four years, the Dow has made 126 new all-time highs, more than the 123 under Obama in eight years (albeit at a drastically lower starting point), and the most since the record 263 under Clinton. It is hard to believe it, but six presidents never saw a new Dow high while in power, with Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford being the most recent to checkmark this dubious feat.

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The records from 2020 don’t end there, as stocks have seen a record surge since the election. In fact, from election day until the inauguration, the S&P 500 Index has been up a record 12.8%.

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Lastly, for more of our thoughts on stimulus packages, policy, and the current earnings season, please watch our latest LPL Research Market Signals podcast below or on our YouTube channel. Also, if you like our podcast, please give it a positive review—those reviews go a long way to helping more listen to it. Thanks!

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All index and market data from FactSet and MarketWatch.

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