Will Presidential Debates Move The Stock Market?

U.S. voters are gearing up for the first presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Monday night’s debate will take place at Hofstra University and will be moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.

While voters are waiting to see exactly what the candidates have to say about important issues, traders are trying to determine how the debate might move the stock market.

Related Link: Strategist: Trump Has A Real Chance In November

This year, Clinton and Trump will face off in three debates, the same number of debates that President Obama and Mitt Romney held back in 2012.

Benzinga took a look back to see how the S&P 500 moved on the day following each of those 2012 debates.

The stock market gained 0.7 percent following the first debate on October 3, 2012 and gained 0.4 percent following the second debate on October 16. However, the S&P 500 sold off by 1.4 percent following the candidates’ final 2012 debate on October 22. Overall, the market averaged a 0.1 percent loss on the day following the three debates.

Post-debate CNN polls found that viewers believed that Romney performed better in the first debate and Obama performed better in the second and third debates.

Three new general election polls including likely third-party candidates were released on Monday. A Bloomberg poll shows Trump leading Clinton by 2 percent, while new Quinnipiac and Monmouth polls show Clinton in the lead by 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) is down 0.7 percent on Monday ahead of the debate.