From Reagan to Trump:

Here's how stocks performed under each president

Millions of Americans are still struggling during the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn. But look at the stock market, and you wouldn't know it. The S&P 500 is nearing an all-time high again, after just 122 trading days since its prior peak in February. Although the stock market is not the best way to measure a presidency — especially during a global pandemic — for President Donald Trump, it marks a speedy comeback for one of his favorite indicators. “Big Stock Market Numbers!” he tweeted on Tuesday. Overall, the S&P 500 is up 47% since his inauguration day. How does that gain stack up to stock performance at the same point in other modern presidencies? (896 trading days, to be exact). Stocks were up 74% at this point in Barack Obama’s presidency, about three years into the recovery from the Great Recession. And they were much weaker under George W. Bush, down about 19% as stocks remained low for years after the September 11th attacks and the dot-com boom and bust that occurred in the first year of his presidency. The Covid-19 pandemic is unlike those other crises in that it started as a global health crisis and led to government-mandated business closures to contain the virus. More than 160,000 people have died in the United States due to coronavirus complications. And as of July, 16 million Americans were unemployed. Despite the turmoil, the stock market has rebounded since late March. The gap between Wall Street and Main Street has rarely seemed this wide. CNN Business updates this tracker periodically.

S&P 500 in the first 896 trading days of each presidency Ronald Reagan +20% George H.W. Bush +47% Bill Clinton +52% George W. Bush -19% Barack Obama +74% Donald Trump +47%

Diana Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images Ronald Reagan President Ronald Reagan’s first four years in the White House weren’t particularly lucrative for Wall Street. Crushed by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s war on inflation, the economy stumbled into a brief recession in July 1981. Unemployment spiked to nearly 11%. But Volcker’s rate hikes and Reagan’s corporate tax cuts eventually broke the back of inflation, setting the stage for rapid economic growth. Under Reagan, America drastically ramped up defense spending in a successful bid to bring down the Soviet Union. Despite the strong economy, Wall Street suffered its worst day ever under Reagan. The Dow plunged an astonishing 22.6% on Black Monday — equaling about 5,500 points today. Nonetheless, the S&P 500 posted five separate years of double-digit growth on the Gipper’s watch, including a 26% spike in 1985. 1st term +30% Jan. 20, 1981 – Jan. 20, 1985 2nd term +67% Jan. 20, 1985 – Jan. 20, 1989

Ron Edmonds/AP Photo George H.W. Bush The economy and stock market surged in President George H. W. Bush’s first year in office. The S&P 500 climbed 27% in 1989. But then the savings-and-loan crisis and Gulf War struck. Oil prices more than doubled after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Growth slowed, and the American economy slipped into a mild recession in July 1990. While the recession ended in March 1991, the recovery was choppy. Two years later, unemployment remained around 7%. The sluggish economy led to Bush’s defeat in 1992. 1st term +51% Jan. 20, 1989 – Jan. 20, 1993

Reuters Bill Clinton The roaring 1990s were very kind to Wall Street. Stocks spiked — the S&P 500 increased 210% under President Bill Clinton — as investors celebrated the rise of the Internet and brisk economic growth. Clinton presided over two of the S&P 500’s top 10 years: 1995 and 1997. GDP topped 4% in five of Clinton’s eight years in the White House. Inflation remained stable. Unemployment dipped below 4%. And the United States enjoyed the longest period of uninterrupted economic growth in modern history. The era was punctuated by the dotcom boom, which amounted to the creation of an entirely new industry. The Nasdaq spiked sevenfold between 1993 and its peak in early 2000. The mania created vast amounts of wealth — much of which would disappear as the bubble inevitably popped. 1st term +79% Jan. 20, 1993 – Jan. 20, 1997 2nd term +73% Jan. 20, 1997 – Jan. 20, 2001

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo George W. Bush Investors who bet that a businessman in the White House would translate into strong returns were badly disappointed during President George W. Bush’s presidency. The S&P 500 declined 40% under Bush, the worst among modern administrations. Bush inherited the dotcom bust, which spawned the 2001 recession. The downturn was deepened by the 9/11 terror attacks. Growth gathered steam in 2004 and 2005, fueled in part by low interest rates and the housing boom. But that bubble also popped in spectacular fashion, ushering in the Great Recession and the scariest financial crisis in a generation. In the final quarter of Bush’s tenure, GDP plummeted at an 8.4% annual rate. Unemployment began rising rapidly. The S&P 500 plummeted 38% in 2008, its worst year since the Great Depression. 1st term -12% Jan. 20, 2001 – Jan. 20, 2005 2nd term -31% Jan. 20, 2005 – Jan. 20, 2009

Jeff Zelevansky/Reuters Barack Obama The Wall Street meltdown continued during the first few months of President Barack Obama’s presidency. The financial and auto industries teetered on the brink of collapse before government bailouts saved them both. Unemployment would peak at 10% in 2009, doubling in barely a year. The stock market bottomed out in March 2009, but then the economy slowly healed, beginning what would eventually become the longest bull market in American history. Digging out of the depths of the Great Recession was a long and slow process, though. Annual GDP growth never topped 3% in the Obama era. Hoping to juice the economy, the Fed kept pumping easy money into the system. The unprecedented experiment helped send stocks soaring — the S&P 500 nearly tripled during the Obama era — but also contributed to wealth inequality and populism. 1st term +85% Jan. 20, 2009 – Jan. 20, 2013 2nd term +53% Jan. 20, 2013 – Jan. 20, 2017