Major economic updates have come about this morning as new legislation was signed by the President. The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act gives more room for small businesses to spend the money they receive from the program. Previously, companies were required to use at least 75% of the funds on payroll, but that number has changed to 60%. Furthermore, the timeframe for which funds need to be spent has been modified from eight weeks to 24 weeks. Additionally, the repayment period has also been extended from two years to five years.

Along with the legislative news, unemployment has gone to 13.3%, a drop of 1.5% from April. This decrease was unexpected as CNBC reported that, "Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting payrolls to drop by 8.33 million and the unemployment rate to rise to 19.5% from April's 14.7%." The other big takeaway is the expected 8.33 million jobs lost when the actual result was an increase of 2.5 million jobs that were reported today by Yahoo Finance.

 

These positive changes resulted in the stock market spiking with the DOW jumping up over 3% with the addition of over 800 points and has been increasing throughout the day. Also, the 30-stock index is at its highest point since March 4th, and the S&P 500 increased by over 2%.

This strong economic news should incite optimism for businesses and employees across the country.

You can find more information in following links:

PPP update, Fox Business - https://tinyurl.com/yc75zacx
PPP update, Forbes - https://tinyurl.com/y8mm3kd8
Unemployment, CNBC - https://tinyurl.com/yavxmmet
Stock Market, Yahoo Finance - https://tinyurl.com/ybn92fnd