CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday morning’s tweet by President Donald Trump suggesting that delaying the November election could cause problems for capital investors.
“It sows chaos, and chaos is bad for the stock market,” Cramer said in “Squawk on the Street.”
Dow futures extended their decline slightly in the wake of Trump’s tweet. They then recovered part of the decline.
Trump does not have the power to delay elections on his own; Presidential elections are set as the first Tuesday in November by a 19th-century law of Congress.
However, Trump suggested that delaying elections may be necessary due to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump claimed that increased reliance on voting by mail would result in a fraudulent election; however, there is little evidence to support the claim that voting by mail would lead to widespread electoral fraud. Twitter in May verified two of Trump’s tweets that made a similar claim about voting by mail.
In addition to the progress of the US coronavirus outbreak, Wall Street is also focusing on the presidential election and its implications for economic policy.
Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs warned clients that the election results could be delayed as more voters elect to vote by mail ballots, which may take longer to process. As a result, the investment bank advised clients to hedge their market exposures through December with the expectation of further volatility lasting until November. The election is scheduled for November 3.
Presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads Trump in an average of national general election polls, 50.1% to 41.7%, according to Real Clear Politics.
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