Aug 2, 2017

Trump stock market performance eclipsed by Obama and Bush

President Trump regularly boasts about the stock market's strong performance since his inauguration, including how the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a record high. What Trump hasn't noted, however, is that Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush oversaw greater stock market expansion during their first six months in office, as judged by percentage growth of the S&P 500.

Context: Obama took office in the midst of an economic recession, so much of his S&P 500 increase was a rebound from the depths. Trump, on the other hand, inherited an already-growing market that has accelerated since his inauguration.

Data: S&P Global Market Intelligence, Yahoo Finance; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

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Dion Rabouin

AMD's hot 2020 start could lead to another S&P record

Data: Investing.com; Chart: Axios Visuals

AMD was the best-performing stock on the S&P 500 in both 2018 and 2019, and it got off to a hot start in 2020, rising 7.1% on Thursday to touch a fresh all-time high.

The state of play: The stock rose nearly 80% in 2018, despite falling 40% during that year's disastrous fourth quarter, and it gained 148% in 2019, according to MarketWatch. The company's previous record high stock price was set June 21, 2000.

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Rashaan Ayesh

S&P 500 doubled its average return under past presidents during Trump's first 3 years

Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

The S&P 500 has had a return of over 50% during President Trump's first three years in office, more than doubling the average return of 23% at the same point in a presidential term since 1928, CNBC reports.

The big picture: The market, which hit record highs across the three major indices, got a sustained lift in 2019 after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell lowered interest rates three times, the first such moves since the end of the financial crisis.

Go deeperDec 26, 2019

Dion Rabouin

Powell and the risk-off bull market

Jerome Powell. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Fed’s 180-degree turn was the story of 2019, asset managers and market analysts say.

What happened: Chairman Jerome Powell and the U.S. central bank went from raising interest rates for a fourth time at the close of 2018 and giving market watchers the explicit expectation this would continue in 2019, to doing the opposite. The Fed cut rates thrice and even began re-padding its balance sheet in the last quarter of the year, bringing it back above $4 trillion.

Go deeperJan 2, 2020