President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for stock market gains, on Friday blamed the December bear market on the Democrats’ winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November elections.
Trump also tried to soothe investor worries, saying markets would soon calm.
Fears of a global economic slowdown have roiled global financial markets in recent months amid ongoing concerns over the U.S-China trade war, tariffs and other economic concerns.
The major U.S. stock indexes posted their worst yearly performance in a decade in 2018 as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 marked their poorest December since 1931.
Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has repeatedly taken credit for stock market gains, frequently tweeting self-congratulatory remarks on Twitter. The S&P 500 and Dow reached record highs last fall.
Amid market concerns in recent months, Trump blamed Democrats after they won control of the House in November’s election though they didn’t take control until Jan. 3. He has also criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who he tapped to lead the U.S. central bank.
“As I have stated many times, if the Democrats take over the House or Senate, there will be disruption to the Financial Markets. We won the Senate, they won the House. Things will settle down,” Trump wrote in an early-morning post on Twitter on Friday.
On Friday, U.S. stock index futures jumped after China agreed to resume trade talks with the United States and the government reported that U.S. employers hired the most workers in 10 months in December while boosting wages.
Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe
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