Sean Hannity touting the "breaking news" of the Dow hitting 50,000

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Fox regularly touts the US stock market to distract from bad economic news — but its performance is lagging

Written by Zachary Pleat

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Fox News personalities routinely point to stock market performance while pumping up the Trump administration’s supposed economic prowess, often deploying the talking point that American financial indexes are at or near all-time highs to distract from the rather mediocre performance of the Trump economy in creating jobs, containing inflation, or generating economic growth.

Despite the frequent boasts about U.S. stocks, American financial markets are actually lagging significantly compared to the stock markets of other highly developed nations, as University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers and several news organizations have noted in recent months. Crucially, since the Trump administration launched an undeclared war on Iran earlier this month, American stock markets have lost all momentum, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ each closing on March 13 at their lowest point of 2026.

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  • The US stock market is lagging behind much of the rest of its peers

  • University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers: “Dow 50,000! Also 21st out of 23.” On Bluesky, Wolfers posted multiple charts demonstrating that the U.S. stock market, as of February 6, was significantly lagging behind the stock markets of the rest of the world during the second Trump presidency. [Bluesky, 2/24/26, 2/24/26, 2/24/26]

    • Wolfers: “If Trump or Trumpism were good for the economy … we would expect American stocks to outperform the rest of the world. So you’re allowed to draw the inference at this point. We’re lagging behind the rest of the world.” In an interview with Jennifer Rubin, Wolfers said: “Now, I want to go a step further than this. Here, I was just comparing the U.S. to the rest of the world. It turns out you can just take individual countries. So if you take the G7, in the G7, our stock market comes last.” [The Contrarian, 2/26/26]
    • Bloomberg in January: “Global Stocks Trounce the S&P 500 in Trump’s Chaotic First Year.” Bloomberg reported: “Equities worldwide — once the US is excluded — have risen around 30% since he [Trump] took office a year ago, roughly double the S&P 500’s gain.” The story continued: “The US hasn’t lagged that much during a president’s first year since 1993, when the nation was recovering from a recession and investors were flocking to growing markets overseas.” [Bloomberg, 1/20/26] 
    • Bloomberg also noted that Trump’s performance is nothing to brag about compared to his predecessors. Bloomberg explained: “As far as the S&P 500 goes, the first-year gain under Trump clocks in as only the ninth best start to a term since World War II, according to CFRA. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden — and even Trump during his first stint — all saw bigger gains.” [Bloomberg, 1/20/26]
    • NBC News in November: “The U.S. stock market lags behind dozens of countries, even in a year of record highs.” NBC News reported: “Ranked against dozens of other countries’ indexes, the S&P’s annual performance so far is not even among the world’s top 20. Or the top 30, or 40. With annual returns of 16% through Monday, the S&P lands in 41st place among more than 60 stock indexes around the globe, according to an NBC News analysis.” NBC added that “the S&P’s relative performance this year is remarkably out of line with historical norms.” [NBC News, 11/11/25]

  • Yet Fox has touted the US stock market as a sign of the Trump economy’s strength

    • Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo deflected from February’s loss of 92,000 jobs by pointing to stock market performance. Bartiromo said: “If you bought stocks on April 2 of last year, on so-called ‘Liberation Day’ about the tariffs, you are up huge. When you look at some of those tech names, you have made a lot of money.” [Media Matters, 3/6/26]
    • Fox Business host Charles Payne on the negative February jobs report: “Is it oxymoronic or sort of far-fetched to believe we can have jobless prosperity? A nation where its stock market’s doing well … but fewer and fewer people are getting jobs?” [Fox Business, Making Money, 3/6/26]
    • Fox anchor Sandra Smith: “Obviously there are those who say that they’d like to see those prices come down a whole lot more, but there are folks who are enjoying a record-breaking stock market.” Smith added: “The U.S. stock market’s up 14% since Inauguration Day. It’s up over 18% since Election Day.” [Fox News, America Reports, 2/26/26]
    • Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on the weak GDP report for the fourth quarter of 2025: “GDP a little short … but you know what? The stock market went up anyway.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 2/20/26; Media Matters, 2/20/26]
    • Fox host Sean Hannity opened the February 6 edition of his show by celebrating the Dow milestone of reaching 50,000, and bragged, “There have been over 100 record highs” under Trump. Hannity said: “Tonight, a massive new record after a huge rally on Wall Street. For the first time in history, the Dow hit 50,000 points as the stock market now continues its epic run under the Trump administration. This is the 28th record high for the Dow since Trump became president a little over a year ago. And if you include the S&P, the NASDAQ, there have been over 100 record highs in just one year.” [Fox News, Hannity, 2/6/26]
    • Fox host Laura Ingraham: “You had these economists like Paul Krugman, liberal, they’re predicting doom and gloom all because of the tariffs. So tonight I’m saying, as the Dow edged up over 50,000 today, who’s the real expert here on the economy?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/6/26]
    • Kudlow: “The Dow 50,000, prosperity rocket ship. … To quote President Trump’s Truth Social post, congratulations, America, on Dow 50,000.” Kudlow also argued that “tariff inflation or other economic evils that have not come to pass,” even though economists have repeatedly explained the harms inflicted on the economy by Trump’s tariffs. [Fox Business, Kudlow, 2/6/26; Media Matters, 1/22/26, 11/14/25]
    • Fox Business regular Art Laffer dismissed the bad November jobs report by pointing to gains in the stock market. Laffer said: “I couldn't be more optimistic than I am. The stock market tells us what will be, not what has been. And when you're looking at these markets, given that where we are today and where we're going to be in the future, you just couldn't be more optimistic than now with this jobs report, where I think your inflation report’s going to be.” The jobs report released that morning showed mediocre job creation for the month of November, and a negative revision of 33,000 fewer jobs for August and September, along with the highest unemployment rate in four years. [Fox Business, Kudlow, 12/16/25; Media Matters, 12/17/15]