Trump's Treasury secretary says the stock market is a report card for the White House
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the stock market's rally since the election was a positive reflection on the new administration.
In an interview on Thursday, CNBC's Becky Quick asked Mnuchin whether he viewed the rally as a scorecard.
"Absolutely, this is a mark-to-market business, and you see what the market thinks," Mnuchin replied.
Asked whether a market pullback would reflect disappointment in the speed of President Donald Trump's agenda, Mnuchin said he was not focused on day-to-day gyrations.
Still, his comments are a bookmark to return to at the end of Trump's presidency, since the stock market's performance will most likely be used as one way to assess how investors appraised the administration. The S&P 500 returned 234% during President Barack Obama's eight years in office.
(Alpha Hat)
The benchmark S&P 500 has jumped 10% since the election on the hope that Trump will deliver on his promises of corporate tax reform and fewer regulations. The index, which closed at 2,362.82 on Wednesday, has already eclipsed the average year-end forecast among Wall Street analysts, according to Bloomberg.
The financial sector has been the poster child of the rally as investors see the big banks benefitting from deregulation and higher interest rates. Goldman Sachs' shares contributed the most to the gains of the Dow Jones industrial average, which on Wednesday closed at a ninth straight record high for the first time since 1987.
"We believe we can get back to sustainable [economic] growth of 3% or more," Mnuchin said.
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