Stocks suddenly surged Wednesday after suffering deep losses heading into the holiday season; soaring 750 points in afternoon trading that hoped to erase the damage caused during the “worst Christmas eve” in US history.
“Stocks rose sharply in volatile trading on Wednesday as surges in retail and energy shares helped Wall Street regain the steep losses suffered in the previous session,” writes CNBC.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 700 points higher as of 3:16 p.m. ET, while the S&P 500 gained 3.25 percent. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 4.2 percent. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track for their biggest one-day gains since Aug. 26, 2015,” adds the article.
The strong performance comes the same day as early reports show a healthy US holiday season, with retail and online sales up from the same period last year.
Read the full report at CNBC.
Middle Class Income Highest Level Ever Recorded
The hardworking men and women that comprise America’s middle class had their highest earnings ever recorded last year, the United States Census Bureau reported on Tuesday; a critical figure suggesting the US economy was back on track following years of tepid growth.
According to the Washington Post, median household income for average American families was $59,039 last year, beating the previous record of $58,655 back in 1999. The figures are adjusted to account for inflation, and show an American economy roaring back to life.
Additionally, the United States poverty rate fell to 12.7%, the lowest levels seen since 2007, just months before the fiscal crisis devastated the American economy.
President Trump campaigned largely on bolstering the middle class, whom he said were often neglected and haven’t seen real wage increases since the early 2000s. Since taking office, Trump has slashed burdensome regulations that economists believe unnecessarily hindered the job market.
Speaking last month, the President turned his sights to tax reform, saying this was a “once in a generation” opportunity to provide tax relief to the hardworking American families.
“We’re here today to launch our plans to bring back Main Street by reducing the crumbling burden on our companies and on our workers,” Trump told a crowd in Missouri. “The foundation of our job creation agenda is to fundamentally reform our tax code for the first time in more than 30 years.”
US Economy SMASHES ESTIMATES, Adds 230K Jobs
The United States economy added approximately 228,000 jobs in November alone; slashing the unemployment rate to just 4.1 percent and busting expectations that predicted payrolls to grow by 200,000.
According to CNBC, average hourly earnings also rose by 0.2 percent in the same month; resulting in 2.5 percent growth in 2017.
“The November employment data is largely as expected. For an expansion that began in mid-2009, no negative surprises are welcome,” said a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. “The lingering impacts of recent hurricanes and flooding have reverted back to relative calm in the statistics, meaning that this is a ‘cleaner’ number.”
Surprisingly, the second largest gains were seen in the manufacturing sector; adding 31,000 jobs in the industry. The economy saw a total in goods-producing occupations tick upwards to 62,000.
Construction also saw steep gains, adding 24,000 jobs –most of which were in “specialty trade” contracts.
“With continued improvement in the labor market, room for continued upward trajectory in 2018 is likely limited because there’s not much slack left to hire workers for further growth,” said one economist.