Dow closes above 25,000, extending milestone-breaking run for blue-chip stock index

Adam Shell in USA Today

“The milestone-busting Dow has done it again,” USA Today reports on the record-setting close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which today closed above 25,000 for the first time in its history.

“Rising stock prices have been powered by a global economic recovery and optimism that the Republican tax-cut bill will provide a fresh boost for U.S. growth and help American companies make more money,” Adam Shell writes. “Dow 25K is just another milestone, not the top,” adds Brian Belski, the chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets.

Click here to read more.

------------

Paul Bedard in Washington Examiner writes that more than 100 companies are giving “Trump bonuses” after the Republicans’ historic tax victory. “There is a broad and deep tsunami building,” John Kartch of Americans for Tax Reform tells the paper, as businesses across the country look to raise wages, increase charitable giving, and extend bonuses.

------------

CNBC reports that job-cut announcements in 2017 hit their lowest mark since 1990—20 percent below 2016’s number, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Last month saw 7.4 percent fewer job-cut announcements than November,” CNBC’s Chloe Aiello writes.

------------

Vice President Mike Pence writes in The Washington Post that the United States will not be silent when it comes to standing with the people of Iran as they protest their country’s oppressive government. Axios reports that the U.S. Treasury Department issued strong new sanctions today on the Iranian regime.

------------

In the New York Post, Rich Lowry argues that “if there’s any aspect of the Trump immigration agenda that should command universal support, it’s his crackdown on [MS-13], an immigrant gang whose motto is ‘murder, rape and control,’ and whose signature weapon is the machete.”