US Presidential Inuaguration and Market Gains

There is high expectation on Mr. Obama to deliver. Markets are banking on his economic proposals to revive the Wall-Street. Not all presidents have succeeded in matching the market expectations. If we look at look at the presidential inauguration since 1980s majority of presidents have given markets a respectable gain a year after their inaugurals.

Bill Clinton is the president who gave markets’ their biggest gain a year after his first presidential inauguration. It was whopping 28.9%, highest for any president sine 1980. he is the only president to have given markets positive gains in both terms as US president. Ronald Regan and George W Bush, are other two presidents who have been president twice. They are also the presidents who gave negative returns to the markets a year after inauguration of their first term. But they succeeded in giving markets a good gain a year after inauguration of their second term.

George W Bush has been the worst performers amongst all presidents since 1980s. Markets have gained only 7.4% a year after his 2005 presidential inauguration. His father George H W Bush had performed better, markets gained over 16% a year after his presidential inauguration in Jan 20, 1989.

It would be interesting to watch how markets perform during these turbulent times.