CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday that he feels better about buying stocks now that President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged the need for coronavirus relief for workers and small businesses.
Trump plans Tuesday to meet with Senate and House Republicans to discuss “a possible payroll tax cut” and other “substantial relief” as coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped 760 with 27 deaths. Monday evening, the president floated those options to mitigate economic damage from the virus’ spread. He also said he’s looking at ways to help hourly employees who could miss paychecks if they’re unable to go to work.
“One of the things that really made things better today is this was a recognition that things have to be done. That was very reassuring,” Cramer said.
“They’re putting things in place. They’re going to stagger them just in case things are bad and get worse. I don’t know. It’s something,” the “Mad Money” host added.
Cramer’s comments on “Squawk on the Street” came as U.S. stock futures were indicating a strong bounce from the worst decline on Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 800 points or 3.5% after Tuesday’s open, making back a sizable chunk of Monday’s over 2,000-point, or nearly 7.8%, plunge.
However, by late morning, the Dow sank in and out of negative territory.
Monday’s losses pushed the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq near a bear market; all down 19% from month’s record highs. A bear market is defined by an index or asset closing down at least 20% from recent 52-week highs.
The S&P 500 has come close a few times to closing in a bear market since the longest bull market ever started on March 9, 2009. In December 2018, the index went below the bear market threshold but only an intraday trading basis.