Trump says he’s not going to make any stock market predictions in case there’s a ‘dip’

After ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump stopped short of telling investors to buy more stock as he gets set to take office.

“I don’t want to get into a situation where they do and we have a dip or something because that can always happen,” Trump told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street.”

Trump repeatedly used the stock market as a performance barometer during his first term. During that time, the S&P 500 scaled nearly 68%, reaching all-time highs. Part of that was due to corporate tax cuts passed by the administration at the time. The Federal Reserve also maintained interest rates close to historical lows back then as it tried to spur inflation, also boosting stock prices.

He touted at the exchange on Thursday the possibility of lowering taxes again. “We’re gonna do things that haven’t really been done before. We’re gonna cut taxes still further,” he said. “You pay 21% if you don’t build here. If you do, we’re going to try and get it to 15%, but you have to build your product, make your product in the USA.”

Wall Street CEOs and investors such as Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman came to the New York Stock Exchange for Trump’s bell-ringing ceremony. Ackman told CNBC later that “most of the country understands that the more successful businesses are, the more the stock market goes up, the more that their wages rise, the more job growth, the more opportunity, the more businesses who come to this country, it lifts all boats.”

While Trump refrained from telling investors to buy stocks now, he maintained a bullish outlook longer term.

“I think long term this is going to be a country like no other. We had the three best years ever until Covid came,” he said after being named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Yun Li.