President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was surprised by the stock market’s resilience during the Iran conflict and expected the economic damage to be even worse.
In an interview with CNBC, the president said he expects the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 to fall by 20%, the benchmark for a bear market, and for oil prices to rise to $200 per barrel.
“If you told me the price of oil was $90 instead of $200, I’d be surprised, frankly,” Trump said on the show “Squawk Box.” “You know what’s going on? Boats are finding other water sources. They’re going to Texas, they’re going to Louisiana. They’re going to Alaska, they’re going to other places. It’s an amazing phenomenon.”
As for the stock market, which presidents often use as a barometer of economic success, he said he went into the war expecting a sharp decline.
“Look at that S&P (500). Those numbers were when we started this thing. We thought they were going to be down 20%, pretty significant,” Trump said. “I was surprised a few weeks ago when oil prices went even lower. I thought they would go lower, I thought oil prices would go higher, and I’m very happy to say that’s not the case.”
In the first weeks of the war, markets plummeted as trading became volatile due to the intensity of the fighting.
Stocks rebounded after the cease-fire announcement, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is now just below its all-time high reached in early February.
In the energy market, US light sweet crude oil soared above $112 per barrel, before falling due to the ceasefire. But gas prices are still more than $4 a gallon, about 87 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA.
