It's no secret that the U.S. economy is on the rocks under President Joe Biden. Inflation is running at 40-year highs, gas hit it's highest-ever national average, wage growth is trailing behind inflation by multiple percentage points, the supply chain means necessary goods are in short supply, and two-thirds of Americas are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Now, even more proof that the economy is not in the greatest recovery in history that Biden claims he's led Americans through. As the second quarter of 2022 ends, it turns out the stock market just logged one of its worst first halfs for any year in more than 50 years.
As Yahoo Finance explains:
The S&P 500 fell by 0.9% on Thursday to reach 3,785.38, ending the first half of 2022 lower by 20.6% for its worst start to a year since 1970. The Dow ended Thursday's session at 30,775.43, dropping 15.3% for the year-to-date for its worst first half since 1962. And the Nasdaq's 29.5% drop so far in 2022 marked its worst first half on record.
So the markets are having their worst year since at least 1970, yet Biden claims he's building America "back better." As Katie reported earlier, the start of Q3 is also the start of the defined criteria for a recession — two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
Coincidentally, the last time stocks had this bad of a start in the first two quarters also marked the start of the 1970 recession that lasted until November of that year.
As Axios put it on Friday morning, "Congratulations, you just lived through the stock market's worst first half since the Nixon administration."
Congratulations, you just lived through the stock market's worst first half since the Nixon administration. https://t.co/JDmsuXOqHM
— Axios (@axios) July 1, 2022