White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the Biden administration is not monitoring the stock market on a regular basis as the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its longest losing streak in 99 years.
While speaking to reporters, Jean-Pierre said that “nothing has changed on how we see the stock market,” which is “not something we keep an eye on every day, so I’m not gonna comment on that from here,” the Epoch Times reported.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped nearly 5%, while the Dow Jones shrank by 4% last Wednesday. On Thursday, the Dow Jones dropped more than 440 points during the morning trading hours.
Earlier in 2022, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden “does not look at the stock market as a means by which to judge the economy.”
The stock market’s historic plunge was triggered, in part, by selloffs of major corporate retailers like Target and Walmart. Target lost nearly 25% of its value after it reported earnings fell short of forecasts made by analysts largely due to shipping costs that high fuel prices and inflation have exacerbated. Other major retailers also saw significant losses in recent days.
Rising interest rates, spiraling inflation, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a slowdown in China’s economy have reportedly caused investors to reconsider the prices they’re willing to pay for a wide range of stocks.
The rampant selloffs lasted for eight consecutive days marking the longest weekly losing streak on Wallstreet since 1923, CNN reported.
The S&P 500 — a much broader index than the Dow Jones — posted its seventh-straight weekly loss marking the index’s longest slump since March 2001. The S&P 500 briefly entered a bear market on Friday after recording a 20% loss from the all-time high that it reached this past January.
The last bear market occurred two years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the recent market conditions will mark the first time since then that new investors could experience true economic shrinkage.
LPL Financial’s Ryan Detrick said, “From inflation to a hawkish Fed, to war, to supply chain issues, to China on lockdown, to a slowing economy, there are many reasons stocks have done as poorly as they have recently.”
Detrick suggested that a “bounce back” is likely, however.
He said, “If we get any good news, a big bounce-back rally is likely.”