It's hard to imagine, but last week marked President Biden's 100th day as US President. During this time, the stock market has been quite strong, however you probably may not realise just how strong. The stock market has gained 8.6% (price only) during this time, and according to my calculations, it ranks as the third best in a President's 100 days going all the way back to 1900.
The only two Presidents who saw larger gains were Taft (15.6%) in 1909 and F. Roosevelt (77.1%) in 1933 after he swiftly passed a number of measures to get the US out of the Great Depression. With the many measures announced by Biden's office, commentators are already speculating whether Biden could be the transformational President in the same manner as Roosevelt.
In todays chart, I've plotted the stock market's return in the first 100 days for each of the US Presidents since 1900.
What makes the gains during Biden's first 100 days even more impressive is that equities also rallied leading up to the Inauguration. From the close on Election Day in November through Inauguration Day, the US stock market was up 13.5%. Combined, that works out to a gain of 22.1% since the 2020 Election.
I've written before about what the US election means for stocks and why I don't think the president controls the stock market. Having said this, it's hard to ignore the new government spending programs that have been announced. Of course, a presidency cannot be solely judged on 100 days, as all manner of surprise factors could still intervene. We could be seeing one of the greatest legacy debt issues being created right in front of our eyes...I guess we'll have to wait and see how this unfolds.
As a minimum, we have governments that are backing the system. As I look into the distance, I'm bullish.