07 December 2020
Data: Yahoo! Finance; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios
Stocks rose faster in the one month of trading following the 2020 election than in the month of trading that followed the 2016 election.
Between the lines: There are many macro differences between the 2016 and 2020 periods, most notably the pandemic, but both elections took place amid bull markets.
By the numbers:
- Dow Jones: +9.96% in 2020 vs. 7.77% in 2016
- Nasdaq: +11.68% in 2020 vs. 4.83% in 2016.
- S&P 500: +9.79% in 2016 vs. 5.61% in 2016.
President Trump said during this year's first debate that "If [Biden] is elected, the stock market will crash."
- Not only was he wrong, but the market has responded more strongly than it did after Trump's election.
The bottom line: The stock market's performance is not necessarily tied to conditions in the so-called real economy, nor is it necessarily correlated to whoever is measuring the Oval Office drapes.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.