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Trump is zeroing in on one of his favorite topics as the midterm elections near

Oct 31, 2018, 20:33 IST

Michael Nagle/Getty Images

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  • President Donald Trump has begun to tweet frequently about the stock market again.
  • Trump's eight stock tweets in October is the most about the market in one month since December 2017.
  • The tweets also come as Trump is trying to drum up Republican support heading into the midterms.
  • The stock market is still up significantly since Trump's election, despite some recent struggles, so the president may see it as a good sales pitch.

After months of relative silence on the topic, President Donald Trump is once again tweeting about the stock market's strength in the run up to the midterm elections.

"Stock Market up more than 400 points yesterday. Today looks to be another good one," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "Companies earnings are great!"

The message follows a double dose of stock market commentary from Tuesday in which the president attempted to pin the recent swoon - October is on track to be the worst month for the market since 2010 - on the Federal Reserve and Democrats.

"The Stock Market is up massively since the Election, but is now taking a little pause - people want to see what happens with the Midterms," Trump said. "If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat."

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While few Wall Street watchers believe that Democrats possibly retaking the House, as most forecasts suggest, is the reason for the sell-off, the president's message seems to dovetail with other recent tactics the president has used to drum up support for the GOP.

Read more: Trump's bewildering new tax cut proposal is 'the height of cynicism' and an admission the GOP tax law failed politically »

The recent tweets are set to make October the most market-focused month for Trump in nearly a year.

Looking at mentions of the words "stocks," "stock market," or one of the major US indexes (Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500, or Nasdaq), Trump has tweeted about the market eight times so far in October. That's the most mentions in a month since December 2017, when the president mentioned the market 15 times:

  • The uptick is also noticeable compared to the period after the market's swift sell-off in February.
  • From that month - when the Dow was roughly 3,000 points from its highs - through July, Trump tweeted about the market just seven times total for an average of 1.2 stock tweets per month.
  • That's a far cry from the nine tweets per month about the market during the preceding six months.
  • But with the midterms approaching and the market picking up in August and September (four stock tweets apiece those months), Trump has suddenly started using stocks as a sales tool again.

Trump seemingly believes that stocks, which are still up significantly since the 2016 election, are a good selling point. And with the GOP on their heels on healthcare and struggling to sell their tax reform bill, going back the market's success may be his best strategy.

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