DOW Posts Best Quarter Since 1987; “V-Shape Recovery” Looking More Likely from COVID-19 Lows

Conventional political wisdom states that, "It's the economy, stupid."

This means that at the end of the day, people want a leader they can trust to lead the U.S. economy.

Polling suggests that Americans trust President Trump over Joe Biden when it comes to the economy.

Fox Business has more on the Dow's strongest quarter in over 3 decades:

The major U.S. stock indexes posted a strong rally during the final minutes of trading on Tuesday to end the quarter on a high note after fighting back from their coronavirus lows.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 216 points or 0.85 percent while the S&P 500 climbed 1.54 percent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.87 percent.

Late day comments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on a potential Phase 4 stimulus plan helped serve as a catalyst, along with similar remarks from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

For the quarter, the Dow posted its best performance in 33 years, gaining 17 percent while the S&P 500 rose 20 percent and the Nasdaq surged 30 percent.

On the economic front, June consumer confidence printed at 98.1, ahead of the 91.8 that analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting.

Meanwhile, the number of daily new coronavirus cases in the U.S. continued to pull back from the peak reached last week, totaling 36,390 on Monday. Deaths due to the outbreak ticked up to 338 but remained near their lowest level since March 25.

While it's too early to tell whether we will have a V-shape recovery, the early indicators certainly suggest that that will be the case.

No wonder polling shows that voters trust Trump over Biden when it comes to the economy!

Nation-wide lockdowns stunted economic growth, resulting in over 40 million Americans unemployed.

Now, as states slowly and safely reopen, the economic engine is slowly returning to life.

Even CNN reports that the stock marketd is roaring strong for investors, including many people approaching retirement age:

It has been a rough quarter for the US economy, with the country plunging into a pandemic-fueled recession. Yet the stock market is alive and kicking — in fact, it's having its best quarter in more than 20 years.

The Dow (INDU) recorded its best quarter since the first three months of 1987 with a 17.8% jump, while the S&P 500 (SPX) logged its best quarterly gain since the final three months of 1998, climbing 19.9%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP) lagged only slightly behind, with its best performance since the fourth quarter of 1999, soaring 30.6%.

It's been an extremely turbulent quarter for the stock market.
The buoyant rally came on the coattails of a dramatic selloff in the market in March, when the pandemic lockdown began. The Dow recorded its worst start to a year in history, falling 23.2% in the first three months.

But investors were optimistic about the summer thanks to the gradual reopening of the economy -- which began as early as April in some states -- as well as unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus left investors optimistic about the summer.

More than 20 million American jobs vanished in April, but soon after, the jobs picture and other economic data began to improve as well.
That said, the country's crisis is clearly not over. Thursday's jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is still expected to show an unemployment rate of more than 12%.

Nevertheless, investors are deciding to focus on the positives.

A strong economy was one of the pillars of Trump's re-election campaign.

If the economy recovers by November, then Trump will be in a much stronger position to defeat Joe Biden.

Even if the economy hasn't fully recovered to it's pre-COVID-19 highs, Americans will be focused on the trajectory of the country.

Fortunately for President Trump, that trajectory appears to be growing higher and higher!