The stock market closed on Tuesday afternoon after its worst day since June 2020 following the morning's release of Consumer Price Index data that showed prices continued to rise in August to a 12-month 8.3 percent while core inflation doubled its expected increase for last month.
Dow tumbles 1,200 points for worst day since June 2020 after hot inflation report; Nasdaq plummets 5%https://t.co/ee7BGLt9Ym pic.twitter.com/FDoJeMnY91
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) September 13, 2022
By market close the S&P 500 was down more than 4.3 percent to 3,932.69, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 1,276.37 points — or 3.94 percent — and the Nasdaq Composite was down more than 5 percent to 11,633.57. If this was part of Biden's Build Back Better policy agenda, he must have forgotten to mention it.
Tech companies were among the hardest hit in the selloff, with Facebook losing nearly 10 percent of its value — more than $40 billion — while the market as a whole lost more than $1.5 trillion.
The U.S. stock market wiped out $1.6 trillion today pic.twitter.com/KzsFvXbMli
— Fintwit (@fintwit_news) September 13, 2022
Still-soaring inflation and Wall Street's worst day since the early months of COVID-19 chaos before Biden even took office, however, did not stop the president from taking a victory lap on Tuesday afternoon — as Katie reported here — in what is either a horribly timed event or just an expression of his disregard for the pain his policies have caused Americans.
The stock market is presently down a thousand points after inflation hit 8.3%, much worse than expected. And Joe Biden is having a celebration at the White House to praise his administration’s response to inflation. You can’t even make this up. It’s tone deaf insanity.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 13, 2022
In one particularly false remark that was soundly debunked by the morning's inflation report that sent stocks tumbling, President Biden claimed that the falsely named Inflation Reduction Act "helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table." While big tech fact-checkers will ignore the claim, it's 100 percent false: Tuesday's Consumer Price Index data show that the food index has risen 11.4 percent in the last 12 months — the biggest jump since the spring of 1979.
BIDEN: The Inflation Reduction Act "helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2022
Today, the Consumer Price Index report noted that the food index jumped 11.4 percent in the last 12 months, the largest jump since May 1979. pic.twitter.com/lGosivmdqm