Bernie Sanders and coronavirus combined dragging down stock market: Connell McShane
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Fox Business co-anchor Connell McShane reported that there are two factors combined, the coronavirus outbreak and the looming possibility of a Bernie Sanders' presidency, which are driving historic losses in the U.S. stock markets.
"The election uncertainty and the virus are actually connected to each other," said McShane on Fox Nation's "Deep Dive" on Thursday.
"I don't think you can argue ... [that] the market is down because people think Bernie Sanders is going to be president," he said. "You have to argue, why would people think Bernie Sanders is going to be president? And that's virus-related, in my view, from people we've been speaking to."
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U.S. equity markets plunged into correction territory Thursday before bouncing off the worst levels of the session following President Trump’s announcement of a coronavirus task force on Wednesday.
The early selling had all three major averages down at least 10 percent from their February peaks. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were on track for their sixth straight day of losses.
"[Market analysts] would argue that the economy will weaken and it will... there'll be some sort of a hit to GDP," said McShane, "that weakening in the economy will hit the president at an inopportune political time at his strongest point."
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In his remarks on Wednesday, the president acknowledged that U.S. GDP will suffer as a result of economic disruption caused by the virus, but he stressed the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong.
"I think the stock market will recover. The economy is very strong," said the president during his White House news conference. "The consumer is the strongest it has ever been. Our consumers are incredible. They're incredible. That's why we're doing well and other countries have not, even before the virus."
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"The thing that the president, as we know, has going for more than anything else, running for reelection ... is how people view his handling of the economy," noted McShane. "So if that changes that makes a Sanders' presidency more likely."
The RealClearPolitics average of polls on President Trump's handling of the economy shows that 56 percent approve of the job the president is doing. Forty-six percent approve of the president's handling of his job overall.
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Fox Business Networks' Jonathan Garber contributed to this report.