| Submit your comments on this article |
| Economy |
| Strong jobs growth, stocks rebound give Trump prime SOTU platform |
| 2019-02-06 |
| [Aljazeera] Good news on the economic front is always welcome. For US President Donald Trump, it arrived just in the nick of time. A week ago and a half ago, some hardline conservatives were lambasting the president for agreeing to reopen the government without winning a single concession from congressional Democrats on funding for a border wall and border security. One conservative pundit even called Trump a "wimp". Adding injury to the insult, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported at the start of last week that the partial government shutdown - the longest in US history - took a $11bn bite out of the economy, $3bn of which is unlikely to be recovered. But before the week was out, the fallout over the shutdown had been eclipsed by economic headlines that played in Trump's favour. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signalled that the US central bank might hold interest rates steady for some time - a reversal from the Fed's position in December and something Trump has long agitated for. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed out the month with their strongest January gains in 30 years, a sharp turnaround from the end of 2018 when markets were roiled by concerns over rising interest rates, US-China trade tensions and slowing global growth. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |