July 10, 2024

The Appetizer

This week’s Stifel Bits is being brought to you by our CIO Office summer interns. Enjoy!

“This is not a stadium for ants … This is a very high camera for the CONMEBOL world feed.”

• Fox Sports soccer analyst Stu Holden commenting on the U.S. match versus Uruguay.

Now, on to the numbers. Drum roll, please …

• 181 million: The number of years it would take to download all the data on the internet.
• 20%: The percentage of public EV chargers that do not work, according to a Harvard study.
• 16: The age of Quincy Williams, who became the youngest U.S. male track athlete to qualify for the Olympics.
• 60%: The amount of the S&P 500’s first half 2024 growth attributed to Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.
• 270: The amount of minutes it took 58-year-old DonnaJean Wilde to set a new world record for the longest plank held by a woman.

Dig In
Buy a Car or Dust off Your Huffy?

The used car market is still piping hot, like a seatbelt buckle in the summer hot, as the average price of a used car rose to $25,571 in April 2024. While this is still lower than its peak of over $30,000 in 2022, high interest rates are raising monthly payments for consumers. Rate cuts are expected to improve affordability, but if I had a nickel for every time I heard interest rates are coming down, I could have bought a Civic in cash.

It’s estimated that because of the pandemic, car companies built about 8 million fewer cars than they otherwise would have. Couple this with automakers moving to sell more premium versions of their models, and people are holding on to their cars longer. Case in point, the average age of a car on the road these days is 12.6 years old. So, similar to the housing market, limited supply and people holding on to their cars longer are creating price pressures.

To end on a more positive note, dealerships are helping out as best as they can by offering consumers thousands in incentives and lower-cost financing options. As the market gets into better balance, there is hope conditions will soon improve for consumers. Don’t give up on your dream of cruising down the highway in your new ride just yet!

Weekly Specials

On June 17, the Boston Celtics won their 18th NBA championship. Two weeks later, the team’s majority owners, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, want to sell the franchise for estate planning reasons. Forbes ranked the Celtics, even before their latest title win, as the fourth most valuable NBA team at about $4.7 billion. The Golden State Warriors were ranked first at $7.7 billion.

Federal Reserve (Fed) officials might have some relief that the job market is cooling a bit. The unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, tied for the highest level since October 2021. The waiting game continues as traders see a 72.5% probability that the Fed will cut rates in September.

Scientists at Columbia University recently discovered a 15-year mistake in gut stem cell research. So, what went wrong? They were looking at the wrong stem cells all along. It just goes to show that even the brightest minds can have an “oops” moment. We have yet to see what this means for the potential of regenerative medicine.

Corporate Lunch

Apple is expanding its Apple Intelligence features beyond iPhones, iPads, and Macs to include its Vision Pro headsets.

Chipotle’s first-ever stock split was 50-for-1. This may sound like a great deal, but the value of the company didn’t change.

Nike recently revealed plans to introduce a line of sneakers priced under $100.

Time to make up? Boeing has agreed to repurchase key supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. in an all-stock deal worth $4.7 billion, reversing a split dating back almost two decades. That’s the Spirit!

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, has filed for bankruptcy after taking on $323 million in debt to purchase Redbox in 2022. That is 98,325 years’ worth of late fees.

The world’s second largest fashion retailer, H&M, fell over 14% after reporting weaker-than-expected second quarter profits, of ONLY $672 million.

Not that anybody’s counting, but it seems European Union (EU) regulators can’t get U.S. tech companies out of their sights. Meta Platforms is the latest to be accused of breaching EU antitrust rules.

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.

Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index that is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.