Trump says market should be higher | Big Elon Musk payday | China battles coronavirus

WED, JAN 22, 2020

EVENING BRIEF

AS OF WED, JAN 22, 2020 • 04:04 ET

DJIA		29187.02
		-0.03%	-9.02

S&P 500		3321.81
		+0.03%	+1.02

NASDAQ		9383.77
		+0.14%	+12.96

Most Active

DOW
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
INTC	62.73	+2.18	+3.60%
AAPL	317.70	+1.13	+0.36%
MSFT	165.70	-0.80	-0.48%

S&P 500
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
GE	11.37	-0.29	-2.49%
AMD	51.43	+0.38	+0.74%
BAC	34.36	+0.10	+0.29%

NASDAQ
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
AMD	51.43	+0.38	+0.74%
TSLA	569.56	+22.36	+4.09%
SIRI	7.20	+0.05	+0.70%

EDITOR'S NOTE

There's really no need to make excuses for an economy in its 11th year of expansion and a stock market repeatedly hitting new highs, but on Wednesday President Donald Trump offered a few anyway.

In an interview with CNBC's Joe Kernen from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the president blamed the General Motors strike, Boeing's grounded 737 Max and the Federal Reserve's 2018 interest rate hikes for tempering the boom.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average would be 5,000 to 10,000 points higher, and the economy would be growing at 4% instead of 2%, if it weren't for these troubles - particularly the Fed's rate hikes. "That was a killer when they raised the rate," the president said. "It was just a big mistake."

Nevertheless, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded below its record high on Wednesday while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit new highs.

The bull market keeps charging higher despite Trump's bare-knuckled trade battles with China as well as Canada and Mexico. Now, it's Europe's turn, Trump told CNBC.

Trump said he'd met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Davos and told her that if he didn't get a trade deal there would be "very high tariffs on their cars and other things that come into our country." The president told Kernen, though, that he'd be surprised if he had to implement the threatened tariffs.

"I don't want your audience to get nervous," Trump said. "They're going to make a deal because they have to. They have to. They have no choice."

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