By: KeerthiMohan
Enlarge this imagePrices for both of those gasoline and all-natural gas have fallen this 12 months. An AT&T employee fills up his company van in San Diego last month.Mike Blake/Reuters/Landovhide captiontoggle captionMike Blake/Reuters/LandovPrices for the two gasoline and organic gasoline have fallen this 12 months. An AT&T employee fills up his company van in San Diego last month.Mike Blake/Reuters/LandovNo Jake Arrieta Jersey question, this was a traumatic, sad week because of the ma s shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. It’s not easy to turn to good news. But putting grief aside for a moment, there were indeed positive developments for the country in recent days. With more cost-effective energy, far more work opportunities and higher stock prices, most Americans have been seeing their financial situations improve. Here are some of this week’s highlights:Work opportunities: Employers added 211,000 employment in November, the Labor Department said on Friday. That’s a healthy pace. Except for the manufacturing sector, the U.S. financial state is now “much extra vibrant,” said economist Bernard Baumohl of The Economic Outlook Group. Stocks: Share prices surged after investors shrugged off worries about a looming uptick in interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,848, up 370 points, to end the week with a gain. CONSTRUCTION: Greg Luzinski Jersey The Labor Department said that last month, construction companies hired 46,000 workers, mostly to build homes. The housing sector has very low inventories, so this fall’s construction hiring suggests there could be a burst of residential sales in the spring. WAGES: Average hourly earnings continued their upswing, climbing nearly 0.2 percent last month, for a 12-month gain of 2.3 percent. ENERGY: Gasoline prices kept slipping, down to a national average of $2.047 for a gallon of regular gasoline, compared with $2.728 last year, according to AAA. And the government reported record inventories of normal gasoline. Amid the pure gas glut, many utility companies are cutting the prices they charge Lenny Dykstra Jersey residential customers. EUROPE: On Friday, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he would support much more stimulus efforts to keep the European economy growing enough to hold off deflation. CONGRESS: Each the House and Senate gave final approval to a $305 billion, five-year highway bill. The package, which was signed by President Obama, will provide a lot more employment and stimulus as transportation infrastructure projects move forward. Sure, there’s bad economic news out there, too. Exports are being hurt by the strong U.S. dollar. That is depre sing factory hiring. And many other countries are still underperforming, especially China. Energy companies are having to lay off a lot of people amid surging supplies and slumping prices. So yes, the U.S. overall economy is never perfect. But this week, it did see a lot of rea suring signs. And with a week like this, Americans could use some good news.
[TheChamp-Sharing]
