The S&P 500 has lost all of its gains since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
The market index fell 3.88 percent to 3,749.63, dropping below the 3,798.91 level when it closed on Jan. 19, 2021. The drop put the S&P back into the
bear market territory.
The two other major stock market exchanges, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite, have already fallen below the pre-inauguration levels. The Dow closed at 30,516.74 on Monday, but it was 31,188.38 on Biden’s inauguration day. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq closed at 10,809.23 on Monday, well below the 13,457.25 level when Biden took office.
Biden was “really aware” of the recent poor stock market performance, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
said during a briefing on June 13, when she asked to comment how “all the gains from President Biden’s time in office have been wiped out.”
“We’re watching closely. We know families are concerned about inflation and the stock market. That is something that the president is really aware of,” Jean-Pierre said.
“We face global challenges,” she continued. “We’re not the only country dealing with what we’re seeing at the moment as it relates to inflation.”
She added, “[Russian leader] Putin’s price hike, inflation coming out of a once-in-a-generation global pandemic, all of those things play a factor.”
The recent stock slide stood in stark contrast to how Biden was full of confidence in the stock market on Jan. 7 this year.
“The stock market—the last guy’s measure of everything—is about 20 percent higher than it was when my predecessor was there,” Biden
said that day. “It has hit record after record after record on my watch, while making things more equitable for working-class people.”
Some Republicans took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Biden over his handling of the U.S. economy.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 are now lower than when Joe Biden took office,” the Alabama Republican Party
wrote. “At this point, the only thing falling faster than the stock market is Biden’s approval rating, and for good reason.”
According to a recent national Quinnipiac Unversity poll, Biden’s
job approval rating was at 33 percent.
“There are growing signs that we are headed to economic disaster. President Biden needs to get his act together immediately,”
wrote Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll
published on June 5, only 28 percent of respondents said they approved of Biden’s handling of inflation, with 27 percent approving how the president is dealing with the rising gas prices.
U.S. inflation
jumped to 8.6 percent in May, the highest level in 40 years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released last week.
The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting on June 14 and is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by a half percentage point.
