Trump to Speak Tonight on Virus Plans Amid Fresh Market Plunge
Trump Says He’ll Make Statement Tonight on Coronavirus Plans
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he’d make a statement Wednesday night on how he’ll deal with coronavirus, as he met with Wall Street executives at the White House on the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged into bear market territory.
The president later said in a tweet that he plans to address the nation at 9 p.m. Washington time from the Oval Office.
Markets have continued to fall after the World Health Organization declared a the virus a pandemic and Trump didn’t provide specifics of “substantial” economic measures he’d earlier promised, including aid for the airline and cruise industries. The S&P 500 closed 19% below its February closing high.
The president appeared to give mixed signals about whether economic stimulus measures are needed, saying “we don’t need stimulus” if the virus goes away quickly. But he also said, “The numbers from a week ago were great, from two days ago were great but now we’re hitting a patch” and went on to call the idea of a payroll tax holiday “great.”
While administration officials in recent days have stepped up warnings about the seriousness of the outbreak, Trump has downplayed the risk, repeatedly likening it to the flu. The president on Wednesday dismissed a reporter’s question about whether he’s taking the virus seriously enough, saying, “That’s CNN -- fake news.”
But Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers Wednesday that “it’s going to get worse.”
“If we are complacent and don’t do really aggressive containment and mitigation, the number could be way up and be involved in many, many millions,” Fauci told the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “But if we sought to contain, we could mitigate it.”
The White House meeting included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon and Wells Fargo & Co. CEO Charles Scharf.
Also attending were Citigroup Inc. CEO Michael Corbat, Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Co-President Gordon Smith, according to the White House. Smith and Co-President Daniel Pinto are in charge of JPMorgan while CEO Jamie Dimon recovers from emergency heart surgery last week.
Confirmed Cases
The president’s focus on fiscal stimulus “is very important,” hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel said at the meeting.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. has continued to rise. As of Wednesday, there were more than 1,100 cases in the U.S. and 30 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Public officials from Washington to California are rapidly moving to restrict large gatherings, while Seattle became the first major American city to close its public schools.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the White House was expected to seek insights from the executives into the market gyrations and learn about what types of assistance banks will be providing to customers and clients, including small businesses, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing plans for the private meeting.
Many lenders are leery about asking the White House for regulatory relief or other assistance in response to virus, according to executives who asked not to be named so they could speak freely.
Wall Street Reaction
Even though it’s been more than a decade since the 2008 financial crisis, Wall Street firms are still a political target and don’t want to be seen as trying to benefit from the pandemic, the executives said.
In a floor speech Wednesday ahead of the White House meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said any government aid should be focused on helping Americans and not bailing out corporations or “deregulating the banking industry.” New York is home to some of the nation’s largest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs.
Banks already have reaped the benefits of Trump’s de-regulatory agenda. Since the president took office in 2017, regulators have relaxed several major rules put in place after the crisis. They include easing restrictions on speculative trading and capital requirements, as well as giving banks breaks on their annual stress tests.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Bill Faries
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