President Obama holds the top two records for worst post-election sell-offs in the American financial markets.
On Wednesday morning, right after Obama’s re-election the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA, fell 2.8 percent in the first two hours of trading. It closed out Wednesday down 2.3 percent, the largest decline in a year. The S&P fell 2.3 percent. The Nasdaq lost 2.48 percent. 80 percent of all the stocks on the NYSE and Nasdaq ended up in the negative.
And that was just Wednesday.
On Thursday, the DJIA fell another 0.7 percent, the S&P fell an additional 1.2 percent, and the Nasdaq fell another 1.4 percent.
On Friday, stocks struggled to make any type of comeback, with the DIJA gaining a measly four points, the S&P rising only two points, and the Nasdaq gaining nine points.
So, at the end of the week of Obama’s reelection, the DJIA is down 2.1 percent, the S&P is down 2.4 percent and the Nasdaq is down 2.6 percent.
This has been the second-worst post-election sell-off the United States has seen since 1896, when the DJIA was created. Which president had the worst post-election sell-off in the history of the market?
Barack Obama.
After Obama won the 2008 election, all three major stock indexes fell from between 5.0 to 5.5 percent.
Compare those results to October 4, 2012. That was the day after Mitt Romney unanimously defeated Barack Obama in the first Presidential Debate. On October 4, all of the stock indexes closed with gains.
Obama’s negative effect on the markets is no small detail, especially with the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ looming. The markets are a reflection of the level of confidence in the economy, and having markets with no confidence in the President is only speeding the country faster towards the cliff.
When it comes to the market’s confidence in the President, Obama is a two-time loser.
