Trump on Coronavirus and the Markets

President Trump held a rare press conference from the White House briefing room tonight to talk about the U.S. plan to counter the coronavirus threat. He was joined by members of the administration, including  Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Tony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The top headline form the press conference was the appointment of Vice President Mike Pence to coordinate coronavirus efforts across the federal government. "Mike is going to be in charge," Trump said. "He’s got a certain talent for this."

A vaccine won't be part of the response, at least not anytime soon. Fauci explained that while vaccine development was moving quickly, it was still at least a year to a year and half away from being ready for the public, given the need for additional development and testing. 

After two days of growing concern coming from federal officials, the president suggested everyone needed to be prepared, but he repeatedly said an outbreak wasn't inevitable. "Nothing is inevitable."  He compared Covid-19 to influenza and suggested some common-sense prevention: "I think you have to always wash your hands...You don’t have to grab every hand rail." 

On coronavirus risk generally, he said: "The number one priority from our standpoint is the health and safety of the American people. Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low."

S&P 500 futures were down 0.5% as of 7:50 p.m. tonight.  

The president also answered questions from reporters about the stock market and the economy. Here are some market-related highlights from the press conference: 

On whether GDP growth will be affected by coronavirus:
"We’re going to have tremendously low unemployment. But you can’t really see what this does in terms of GDP. This would have an impact on GDP, but we’re doing great. I’ll tell you what had a big impact: Boeing had a big impact. I think that took away a half a point to a point." 

On the economy broadly: 
"We have been hurt by General Motors and we’ve been hurt by Boeing, and we’ve been hurt very badly by our own Federal Reserve."

On the recent 2,000 point drop for the Dow: 
"I think the stock market will recover. The economy's very strong. The consumer is the strongest it's ever been. That’s why we’re doing great. Our consumer is very strong."

-and-

"We were going to crack 30,000. We’ve had increases like nobody has seen before despite the 2,000 points. It’s very little compared to what we’ve gone up. 

-and-

"After I win the election, I think the stock market is going to boom like it’s never boomed before."