Tag: Trump Bump

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US Jobless claims drop to lowest level in nearly 45 years

Trump thumbs up

January 19,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC,the Trump Bump has turned into the Trump Jump. The US Jobless claims drop to lowest level in nearly 45 years .The Washington Examiner reports that “new applications for unemployment insurance benefits plunged by 41,000 to 220,000 in the second week of 2018, the Labor Department reported Thursday”—the lowest level they’ve reached in nearly 45 years. “Low jobless claims are a good sign because they suggest that layoffs are relatively scarce,” Joseph Lawler writes.

According to Federal Reserve data reported by Bloomberg, “U.S. factory production rose for a fourth straight month in December, capping the strongest quarter since 2010 and underscoring a resurgence in manufacturing that’s primed for further advances.” What’s driving the uptick? “Stronger consumer spending, increased business investment and more shipments of merchandise to overseas customers are providing plenty of fuel for the nation’s producers,” Katia Dmitrieva writes.

Christopher Buskirk writes in USA Today that President Donald J. Trump’s first year in office has been a story of promises kept. “By every measure of personal and national prosperity, the nation is better off than it was a year ago, and it’s thanks to the integrity of our leader,” Buskirk writes.

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N.J. continues summer growth in employment

Ridgewood Graydon Pool lifeguard

By Eric Strauss, August 18, 2017 at 1:25 PM

New Jersey’s private-sector employment grew by nearly 10,000 jobs in July, following a revised gain of nearly 15,000 jobs in June, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported recently.

The report, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that total nonfarm wage and salary employment rose by 9,800 positions in July, while the June number was revised to 14,900 jobs gained, up from 10,600 estimated earlier.

“The economy and the recovery seem to have gained a bit of momentum after years of frustratingly slow growth,” Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, told NJBIZ. “It does seem that things have picked up, and we’ve had two months of strong job gains.”

Of those July jobs, 7,300 were added in the private sector, with the rest added in public positions. The state said private-sector employment is at a historic high.

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20170818/NJBIZ01/170819818/nj-continues-summer-growth-in-employment

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2016 INVESTMENT RETURNS FOR PUBLIC-EMPLOYEE PENSION UP 7%, MUCH BETTER THAN IN 2015

Pence and Trump

JOHN REITMEYER | JANUARY 26, 2017

New figures don’t negate fundamental funding problems, but they bring some good news for the beleaguered pension system

The board that oversees New Jersey’s beleaguered public-employee pension system received some good news yesterday as new figures showed overall investment returns finished ahead by about 7 percent last year.

While those returns didn’t live up to the 7.9 percent assumption that’s set in state law for the pension system, they marked a significant improvement over the year before, when investments generated less than 1 percent returns.

The new calendar-year figures also suggested a much better outlook for the pension system — which is deep in debt thanks to years of underfunding by the state — after figures released last year for the 2016 fiscal year showed negative returns for the first time in nearly a decade. (The fiscal year runs on a July 1 to June 30 schedule, mirroring the state budget cycle.)

The full dive into the 2016 calendar-year investment returns took place yesterday during a public meeting of the State Investment Council, the board that sets policy for the $72 billion pension system. State officials said the improvement largely occurred during the second part of 2016, with areas like equity and real estate leading the way after a poor start that included plummeting energy prices. They also released new figures for alternative investments like hedge funds and private equity that showed a slight increase in fees but an overall reduction in other costs like bonuses for performance.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/01/25/2016-investment-returns-for-public-employee-pension-up-7-much-better-than-in-2015/?utm_campaign=Observer_NJ_Politics&utm_content=New%20Campaign&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=New%20Jersey%20Politics

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Goldman Says Trump’s Presidency Will Benefit Stocks in Almost Every Sector

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#MAGA comes to Wall Street.

by Julie Verhage

After years of slowing earnings growth and little in the way of excitement for many Wall Street analysts, many are now hopeful that President-elect Donald Trump will finally make things interesting.

When collating data for the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Analyst Index — a proprietary measure of growth across different sectors of the S&P 500 — the firm included a question this month on what the election of Donald Trump will mean for the industries covered by those surveyed. Turns out, they are rather optimistic.

“This month, we asked analysts to comment on how the results of the U.S. election will affect companies in their respective sectors,” the team led by Avisha Thakkar writes in the new note. “While their responses suggest that there is still uncertainty about the sector-level impact, the majority of sectors are anticipating favorable effects,” they say, adding that expectations of lower tax rates and economic stimulus are among key reasons for the favorable outlook.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-30/goldman-says-trump-s-presidency-will-benefit-stocks-in-almost-every-sector