Economic review - Beyond the hype - what improved & what didn't economically during President Trump's 1st 100 days:
Bottom Line: There are three main data points that we can compare at this stage with some degree of accuracy. Job growth (though we'll have a better read on Friday), wage growth and the stock market's performance. If this were a sport the President would be 2-1 based on the info we have available right now. Let's start with what hasn't improved under his administration so far:
Job growth: Averaged 186,000 jobs under President Obama. Thus far job growth, according to the government numbers, have shown only 159,000 average monthly jobs under Trump (I suspect we'll see an upward revision to March's initial report which could alter these numbers by Friday but for now this is the official scorecard)
Now for the two areas that have improved:
Wage growth: President Obama's average wage growth checked in at 2.2%. In the very early going the year over year wage growth for the Trump administration is averaging 2.4%.
Stock market: This is biggest win of all during the Trump administration thus far. Not even factoring in the post-election to Inauguration Day rally (which was the 2nd best in US history), the S&P 500 has appreciated by 6.1% just since the President's inauguration! It's unlikely that pace will continue but as of now the pace is also record setting. Investors have certainty been big winners so far.
More to come. This week's jobs reports will be extremely meaningful to gain a better grasp of what's really going on...