President Trump's tweet ending hopes of a bipartisan stimulus bill sent the markets tumbling Tuesday. Trump tweeted: "I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business." In the 10 minutes following the tweet, the Dow Jones fell 451 points (1.6%) from 28,340 to 27,889. The markets recovered portions of their losses Wednesday morning, as subsequent Trump tweets appeared to backtrack on his initial withdrawal from negotiations.
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- At closing, the Dow was down 1.3% on the day, with the S&P 500 down 1.4% and the Nasdaq down 1.6%. All three indexes were up on the day when the tweet was sent at 2:48 p.m. ET.
- Later in the day, Trump tweeted that he would support a bill that offered $25b for airlines and $135b in paycheck protection for small businesses.
- Trump also tweeted that he would approve a standalone bill providing $1,200 stimulus checks to individuals.
- Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pleaded with Congress to pass a stimulus bill stating that, "too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses." Trump further muddied the waters by retweeting a CNBC story about Powell, appearing to agree with him.
