Zinger Key Points
- Donald Trump has passed the 100 day mark in the White House for his second term.
- A look at how the SPY, QQQ and Bitcoin have performed during his first 100 days.
- Today's manic market swings are creating the perfect setup for Matt’s next volatility trade. Get his next trade alert for free, right here.
On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the U.S., an event watched by millions of people on television and highly anticipated by investors.
Here's a look back at the event and how investments in several well-known ETFs and Bitcoin BTC/USD have performed during Trump's first 100 days in office.
Trump Inauguration: Trump has passed the 100 day mark in the White House for his second presidency, leading to report cards and grades on all the campaign promises he made and an early look at how the economy is looking.
During his inauguration, Trump promised to make Americans wealthy with various items like tariffs, tax cuts and government cost savings.
"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said. "From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world."
Fast forward 100 days and the stock market has fallen with many major indexes negative. Here's a look at how investments made when Trump took over the presidency would have performed.
Read Also: Trump Says ‘I Run The Country And The World,’ Yet Polls Plummet
Investing $1,000 in SPY, QQQ, BTC: Trump's inauguration took place on a Sunday with the stock market closed. Investors who believed a Trump presidency would make the stock market go up could have bought stocks or ETFs at close on that Friday (Jan. 17, 2025) ahead of the inauguration.
Here is a look at how much $1,000 investments in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 QQQ and Bitcoin would be worth after 100 days, using closing prices for the ETFs from April 29.
For the price of Bitcoin in this illustration, the opening price on Jan. 20 was used, with the price at 4 p.m. ET on April 29 used.
$1000 Investments:
- SPY: 1.67 shares, now worth $925.71, down 7.4%
- QQQ: 1.92 shares, now worth $913.02, down 8.7%
- Bitcoin: 0.00989 BTC, now worth $935.76, down 6.4%
- Total: Now worth $2,774.49, down 7.5%
As you can see, investments in the major ETFs and Bitcoin have fallen during Trump's first 100 days. In fact the returns of the S&P 500, which is tracked by SPY, have been historically bad when compared to other presidents.
How Trump Stacks Up: The 7.4% drop during Trump's first 100 days is the worst start to a four-year term since Richard Nixon in 1973, as reported by CNBC, citing data from CFRA Research.
In 1973, the S&P 500 fell 9.9% in the first 100 days under Nixon. For comparison, the S&P 500 has an average return of 2.1% in the first 100 days of a presidency, dating back to 1944.
Also keep in mind that recent presidents had some of the best stock market performances in their first 100 days in office. Here's the recent returns and their rating since 1944:
- 2009: Barack Obama, +8.4%, fourth best
- 2013: Barack Obama, +7.5%, sixth best
- 2017: Donald Trump, +5.0%, seventh best
- 2021: Joe Biden, +8.5%, third best
- 2025: Donald Trump, -7.4%, 20th (of 21 in the ranking), second worst
Markets traded higher in November and December on the heels of Trump's win with some of the largest companies in the world hitting new all-time highs. January and February also saw gains after Trump took office.
Attention shifted towards economic policies and foreign in March and April with markets diving in April after Trump's tariff announcement.
For Trump’s first year in office in 2017, the S&P 500 Index finished the year up 21.7% for one of the best performances during a president's first year in office.
Earlier this year, Benzinga readers predicted where the SPY will finish 2025 during Trump's first year back in office.
“What do you think the return will be in 2025, his first year back,” Benzinga asked.
The results were:
- 16%+: 26%
- 11% to 15%: 22%
- Will Decline: 22%
- 6% to 10%: 19%
- 0% to 5%: 12%
The poll found the largest percentage believes the S&P 500 Index will post gains of at least 16% in 2025. The 11% to 15% range came in second place at 22%.
It’s also worth pointing out that the S&P 500 decline in 2025 was actually tied for second in the poll at 22%, which could mean 2025 is a make-or-break year.
Did You Know?
- Congress Is Making Huge Investments. Get Tips On What They Bought And Sold With Our Easy-to-Use Tool
Photo: Evan El-Amin via Shutterstock
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