The Dow Jones has erased all of its gains since Trump became president

Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was once again halted on Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average officially erased all of its gains since President Trump was inaugurated.

The Dow on Wednesday fell below 19,732 points, the number it closed at the day before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. "The Trump stock rally, which at its peak a month ago was robust and seemingly unending, has completely evaporated," CNN writes.

As the S&P 500 fell 7 percent, trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted for 15 minutes. This is the fourth time the stock market's circuit breaker has triggered a suspension in trading this month amid the escalating coronavirus crisis.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

"The American economy is poised for the worst quarterly contraction ever, with a sudden slowdown in economic activity that's more akin to what happened in wartime Europe than during previous American slowdowns like the financial crisis more than a decade ago or even the Great Depression," The New York Times wrote on Wednesday.

These pieces of bleak stock market news hit while Trump was delivering a White House briefing on the administration's response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, leading Politico's Jake Sherman to write, "I wonder if the White House will see this and keep him off television during trading hours."