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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday expressed concern about the stock market’s coronavirus-driven selloff, as the California Democrat also criticized President Donald Trump’s analysis of the market’s action.
She offered the following take when asked at her weekly news conference about the drop:
‘The market drop – now it’s what 3,000? Or 2,500? As of last night, 3,000 – is disturbing.’
As of Wednesday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.12% had fallen about 2,600 points from a record high achieved in mid-February, and at its intraday low on Thursday, the blue-chip equity gauge was down by more than 3,500 points from that high.
Pelosi went on to say that U.S. government officials want to prevent the spread of the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19 “without panicking people about this, but the market will do what it does, with the invisible hand that it always does.”
“It does show some fragility on the part of the market that it would drop so much,” she added.
At a news conference on Wednesday night, Trump said stocks SPX, -1.03% are falling because of the coronavirus outbreak and because investors “looked at the people you watched debating” on Tuesday night in South Carolina.
“You really have to wonder,” Pelosi said, regarding Trump’s analysis. “He said the reason the market dropped was because of the debate the other night. Well, the market had dropped 1,800 points before the debate the other night.”
“Let’s not be silly about what that is,” she added.
See also: Stocks slide into correction territory as coronavirus concerns rise
