President Donald Trump hasn’t hesitated to tout the stock market’s new all-time highs in recent days — but the market’s climb over the last decade means record-breaking numbers aren’t quite as rare as they might seem.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made headlines on Wednesday after topping 22,000 points for the first time. And while it’s certainly been a strong month for the stock market, it’s not unprecedented over the last few years.
In fact, the Dow has reached a new high, on average, once every seven days since fully recovering from the Great Recession in March 2013.
And it’s happened under both Trump and former President Barack Obama: The Dow has hit an all-time high in 30 of the last 54 months since fully coming back from the market collapse of 2007-08. And it happened more than 100 times under Obama since 2013.
But Trump took to bragging about the stock market’s new high on Wednesday — the 154th time the Dow achieved a new record since it recovered from the Great Recession and the 32nd time during his young presidency.
“I just want to state that, as you probably have noticed, the stock market hit an all-time record high today. Over 22,000,” Trump said while unveiling an immigration plan at the White House. “Again, today, the stock market hit the highest level that it has ever been.”
In fact, he spent most of July touting the market’s new heights — though it’s worth noting March 2013, May 2013, November 2013, November 2014 and December 2016 each had more record-breaking days than occurred over the last month.
He praised the all time high on Twitter on July 2…
…adding it “just hit an all-time high” in a speech in Poland on July 6, and then tweeting it “hits another high” on July 12…
…and a “new all-time high” on July 15…
…and the “Highest Stock Market EVER” on July 31…
“If you look at stock markets — the highest it’s ever been,” he said on July 31 after swearing in John Kelly as his new chief of staff. “We have the highest stock market in history,” he said later that day in a Cabinet meeting. And Trump added on Twitter on Tuesday it “could hit all-time high (again).”
Indeed, in the eight full or partial months during which Trump has been president, the stock market has soared to new heights in six of them.
But it’s happened before in the last few years, including new highs at least once in 11 of the 14 months spanning April 2014 to May 2015 under Obama. And it reached record-breaking heights at least once in 9 of the 10 months from March 2013 to December 2013.
Under Trump, the market has closed at an all-time high on eight days in July and seven days in June after failing to set records in April and May. The Dow closed at record-setting levels about one in four days since Trump took office vs. one in eight days since March 2013 under Obama. (The Dow suffered two significant dips during late 2015 and early 2016.)
Trump also touted more record-breaking numbers in February. “The fake news media doesn’t like talking about the economy,” Trump said on February 16, during a month that saw 12 record-setting days. “I never see anything about the stock market sets new records every day. I never see it.”