Well, this should attract people’s attention: Stocks plunged big-time on Wednesday, as Washington political drama reached a fever pitch and investors worried that politicians won’t deliver on tax reform and a health care overhaul.
Major stock indexes fell around 2 percent, their biggest one-day drops since September 2016. Stocks are still up for the year and have been riding high since the election on hopes that Republicans can follow through on their promises.
Despite relentless media coverage of Trump and Russia since January, it hasn’t been clear that American public shares the same outrage as, say, journalists at major newspapers. Last week, 32 percent of U.S. adults said they had “no opinion” of Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
But that could change on today’s stock news. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Until recently, there has been a big disconnect between generally solid economic numbers and Trump’s low approval rating. But now those are starting to draw closer. Last week, Gallup reported that the public’s views on the economy hit a low point for 2017. The latest Gallup poll has Trump’s approval at 38 percent.
One pitiful day on Wall Street is not a trend. But a big stock market pullback could drive those economic confidence numbers further down, and in turn, lower Trump’s approval ratings. That could make it even tougher to move his agenda through Congress.
