President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that there was a “glitch” in the stock market last month, but that equities should recover as the U.S. completes trade deals with countries like China.
“Our country is doing by far than any other country in the world. We’re the talk of the world,” Trump told reporters during an ongoing Cabinet meeting. “We had a little glitch in the stock market last month, but we’re still up about 30 percent from the time I got elected.”
“It’s going to go up once we settle trade issues and a couple of other things happen,” Trump said. “It’s got a long way to go.”
The S&P 500 dropped more than 9 percent for its worst December performance since 1931. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Howard Silverblatt, U.S. stocks lost about $2.9 trillion in value last month. Those losses also pushed the broad stock index to its worst annual performance since 2008 — when it plunged more than 38 percent. For 2018, the S&P 500 pulled back 6.2 percent.
Equities fell sharply in December as investors grappled with fear that the Federal Reserve might be making a monetary policy mistake, worries about a possible economic slowdown, and ongoing trade negotiations between China and the United States.
China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day truce on Dec. 1 to try and strike a permanent trade agreement. Both countries have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other’s goods.