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White House Says Dip In Stock Market Not That Serious

White House officials are downplaying the recent chaos in the stock market, saying its a short-term wobble and the US economy remains resilient. "Look, markets do fluctuate in the short term," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah. "We all know that. And they do that for number of reasons. But the fundamentals of this economy are very strong and they're headed in the right direction — for the middle class, in particular." Stocks tanked in trading Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling as much as 1,500 points. That was a continuation of a fall from Friday, which saw the Dow close down just under 666 points. Analysts cited a slew of reasons for the sell-off, ranging from increasing wage pressures to high valuations. Trump has long cited the increase in the stock market as proof of the positive effect of his presidency on the economy, even going as far as to call the stock market a good report card of his job performance. In a separate interview with CNN, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said that despite Trump taking credit for the rise, the drop should not be pinned on the president. "It's still in a very strong place, it's still exorbitantly higher than it was when he took office," Gidley said. The Dow closed at 18,589.69 the day after Trump won the 2016 election, meaning the index is still up roughly 30% since Trump's win and just over 23% since he took office. "On Friday, where you referenced, we also saw some really good news in the economy, which is wage growth rising at the fastest pace than it has in any point in eight years, since 2009," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Unemployment, nationally, is at 4.1 percent. That's the lowest level in almost two decades."Shah said that the positive economic news, including raising wages, are directly tied to President Donald Trump's policies. In particular, Shah touted the positive wage boosts by major companies following the passage of the GOP's tax reform bill. "And the tax cuts and reform bill, as we're already seeing, is leading to hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the United States," Shah said. "Hundreds of companies giving additional raises, bonuses, benefits, and everything else to employees. We're very excited about the strength of the economy."