Trump's assessment of the turmoil he triggered: The market is 'just about even'
Ben Werschkul ·
Washington Correspondent
Fri, January 23, 2026 at 10:56 AM EST
3 min read
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As he returned to Washington on Thursday evening, President Trump offered an assessment of the tumultuous week in markets, saying that things worked out because it's "just about even."
Trading for the week is, of course, not fully over — and stocks opened lower on Friday — but the president assessed that the "market reaction has been good" to his week of whirlwind tariff threats and retreats.
It's "pretty much even, right?" he said.
In fact, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is poised to end the four-day trading week lower after Tuesday’s steep losses. It could be the second losing week in a row as the relief that lifted stocks on Wednesday and Thursday appears to be wearing off.
Read more: How to protect your money during economic turmoil, stock market volatility
The president's remarks as he returned from the World Economic Forum nonetheless showed the close attention he continues to pay to financial impacts from his moves.
Trump also noted the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is nearing 50,000, keeping his focus on the positive returns on Wednesday and Thursday.
The brief comments from the president, part of a wide-ranging back-and-forth with reporters on Thursday evening, were just the latest market commentary in a week where the president's actions moved markets even more dramatically than usual.
The president brought up the markets on Wednesday during his speech in Davos, noting that "our stock market took the first dip yesterday" but dismissing it. He predicted the "stock market is going to double in a relatively short period of time because of everything that's happening."
Observers quickly dismissed a doubling as happening anytime soon, with Slatestone Wealth chief market strategist Kenny Polcari likening Trump's comments to "noise" in an interview on Yahoo Finance.
"It's useless," he said. "It doesn't really do anything."
In total, Trump weighed in on the markets in some form every day between Monday and Thursday. On Monday and Tuesday, he touted previous highs and again blamed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for markets not being higher.
At one point Thursday, he even called the Federal Reserve "discredited."
While Trump placed outsized attention on markets this week, some administration officials tried to downplay how much of a factor the ups and downs are in his decision-making.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied to Politico that Trump's decision to back down from 10% additional tariffs on eight European nations over the Greenland issue had been triggered by price swings.
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"The bond market didn't change the calculus," Bessent said. "President Trump always knew where he was going."
Also on Thursday evening, the president announced his opposition to a policy his own administration had been developing to allow Americans to use retirement savings from their 401(k) accounts to make down payments on homes. "I'm not a huge fan,” he said.
His rationale was once again the markets: "One of the reasons I don't like it is that 401(k)s are doing so well."
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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