Rob Gronkowski made a trip to the Financial District in New York City on Wednesday to pay his respects to 9/11 victims and appear at the Cantor Fitzgerald Charity Day to do some trading.
The retired NFL star said he showed up on Wednesday to invest as much as he could because he heard that stocks were down over concerns of the presidential election. Gronkowski has an estimated net worth of $45 million.
“I want to bring the stock market back! I heard it’s down right now with the election thing and everything that has been going on,” Gronkowski said in a video interview with Bloomberg. “I want to do the biggest trades of the day, so, and bring that stock market, so it’s just booming back up to the sky!”
Gronkowski tried to take on a problem head on that has caused anxiety for investors for weeks.
Stock markets globally have faltered in recent weeks on fears that a U.S. recession could trigger a global economic slowdown. A highly anticipated update on the U.S. job market came in weak enough to worsen worries about the slowing economy on Aug. 21, which revealed the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March of this year than were originally reported.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 saw their worst starts to a September since 2015 and 2002. Some of Wall Street’s biggest symbols saw sharp tumbles in the weeks that followed, including Nvidia and Apple.
However, Gronkowski’s trip to Wall Street and his investment efforts coincided with one of the better days for the stock market in weeks.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.1% after erasing a morning wipeout of 1.6%, one where almost every stock within the index had been falling on Wednesday. A majority of the index’s stocks still finished lower for the day, but the performances by Nvidia and other tech stocks were enough to drive it to a third straight gain and back within 2% of its all-time high set in July.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 124 points, or 0.3%, after rallying back from a drop of 743 points. The Nasdaq composite jumped 2.2%.
Large stock market swings are common in election years, especially in the month of September, which is historically the most volatile month of the year for Wall Street. This year’s election has put a particularly heavy stress burden on investors amid concerns of rising inflation and conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Gronkowski’s sudden spending spree on Wall Street may have come at a good time.
