Richard Nixon Performance on Stock Market, GDP and Jobs Created

Last updated: March 22nd, 2023

Richard Nixon was president from 1969 to 1974 after serving as Vice President in the Eisenhower administration. He inherited the Vietnam War and record high inflation (despite record high interest rates) from the Johnson administration. His second term was cut short when he resigned over the Watergate scandal.

In response to rising prices at home, Nixon introduced price and wage freezes to stabilize the economy, and fundamentally reformed the US and global monetary system with the end of the Bretton Woods system and gold backing of the US Dollar.

Summary of Richard Nixon’s performance

Below is a table summarizing Richard Nixon's cumulative and annualized performance across all the metrics we track. These are for the entirety of Richard Nixon's term.

Indicator	Cumulative Gain/Loss
NASDAQ	N/A
DOW	-16.10%
S&P	-20.05%
Job Growth	13.22%
GDP Growth	14.59%

Key Policies

Economic Stabilization Act (Aug 1970)
Nixon forms Environmental Protection Agency by executive order (Dec 1970)
Nixon ends Bretton Woods system and direct convertibility of US dollars to gold (Aug 1971)

Key Events

Nixon becomes first US president to visit China (Feb 1972)
Oil Crisis (Oct 1973)
Watergate (June 1972)
Stock Market Crash (Dec 1973)
Nixon Resigns Presidency (Aug 1974)

Richard Nixon's stock market performance

Under Richard Nixon’s presidency, the S&P 500 lost 20.05%, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones lost 16.10%. Annualized, the S&P 500 lost 3.95%, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones lost 3.11%

Here is Richard Nixon’s cumulative stock market performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
NASDAQ	N/A	N/A
DOW	10.00%	-16.10%
S&P	16.49%	-20.05%

Stock Performance Chart

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Nixon GDP growth performance

During Richard Nixon’s presidency, the GDP gained 14.59%. That translates annually as GDP gained 2.53%.

Here is Nixon’s cumulative GDP growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
GDP Growth	14.67%	14.59%

GDP Performance Chart

Nixon jobs growth performance

During Richard Nixon’s presidency, payrolls grew 13.22% cumulatively. That translated to an annualized jobs groth of 2.27%.

Here is Nixon’s cumulative job growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
Job Growth	8.90%	13.22%

Job Growth Performance Chart

How we calculate President Nixon's data for Facts First?

We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).

Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.

Also, read these articles in our Learning Center:

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