Dow, S&P 500 reach record highs, unemployment claims lowest in 43 years
WASHINGTON- Two of the major stock indexes reached record highs this week and fewer unemployment claims have been filed this month than at any other time in the past 43 years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on Thursday closed at 23,163.04 (+0.02%) and the S&P 500 closed at 2,562.10 (+0.03%).
The NASDAQ closed at 6,605.07, which is a 0.29 percent drop from its previous close.
Unemployment claims filed during the first week of October fell by 15,000 from that of the previous month and overall are the lowest since 1974 according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
During September the unemployment rate dropped 4.2 percent from that of previous month according to the Bureau.
The glowing numbers come as the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are laying the groundwork to implement the most comprehensive tax reform package since the 1986 Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act.
Text of the legislation has yet to be released but President Trump has said that the proposal includes reducing the maximum corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent and consolidating the existing seven individual income tax brackets into three.
The proposal calls for the elimination of both the estate tax and state and local deductions.
Democrats argue that the tax cuts will disproportionately benefit the wealthy and increase the deficit while Republicans maintain that lowering the corporate tax rate will prevent companies from moving jobs overseas and that overall tax relief will help middle-class families.
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.