August 7, 2024

The Appetizer

“It didn’t taste great. It’s a little bit brown”

• New Zealand Olympic Triathlete Ainsley Thorpe after swimming in the Seine River.

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

• 86: The number of medals that the United States has won as of this writing, leading the overall medal count. The U.S. has the most gold medals at 24.
• $1.5 billion: The amount spent on infrastructure investment to clean the Seine River ahead of the Olympics.
• $9.29: The average cost of a Big Mac meal in the U.S., up 27% since 2019.
• 8: The number of consecutive meetings that the Federal Reserve has held interest rates steady at their current levels.
• 28.6 million: The number of viewers that NBCUniversal said tuned into the Olympic opening ceremony, the most for a Summer Olympics since London 2012.
• $35 trillion: The level of U.S. national debt, hitting a new record. That’s a big IOU.

Dig In
November 2024:  What’s in Store

We try not to focus on politics here, as you probably get bombarded with that news elsewhere. “Unprecedented” is a word that seems to get thrown around quite often, but in the case of the upcoming U.S. elections, it actually seems appropriate. In the last month and a half, we had a rough presidential debate between former President Trump and President Biden, then Trump survived an assassination attempt, Biden decided to not run for reelection, and Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the likely Democratic nominee. Despite all this, U.S. equity markets were seemingly unbothered.

When we look at various metrics of which candidate might be in the lead, it seems like Trump has a slight lead over Harris. What matters for the economy and markets are the policies each candidate may want to champion in their administration. Trump is advocating for lower taxes and stricter immigration policies. Harris plans to stick with Biden’s progressive agenda, focusing on social justice and green energy. Despite the intense competition, both parties are uniting around their key issues.

If you’re interested, last week we held a webinar with Stifel’s Chief Washington Policy Strategist, Brian Gardner, on the election and investment implications. We also delved into the platforms of each candidate in our most recent Sight|Lines. Stay tuned!

Weekly Specials

“Loverse,” a new Japanese app, lets users meet, date, and even “marry” AI bots. With about 5,000 users already, it’s designed to help tackle social isolation in the country.

Olympic medalists don’t just bring home a shiny medal; many also receive prize money from their countries! In Hong Kong, a gold medal earns you a whopping $768,000, in Spain, $102,000, and in the USA, $38,000 for snagging gold!

White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford is hanging up her apron. Handpicked by Laura Bush, she has been in the role since 2005 and at the White House since 1995. Over her storied career, she served five U.S. presidents their dinners.

It’s likely that very few world records will be broken in the swimming events at the 2024 Paris Olympics, not because the swimmers aren’t skilled, but because of the pool. The pool is too shallow, creating currents that supposedly slow the swimmers! The pool measures 2.2 meters deep, or roughly 7 feet, 2 inches, which is about 3 feet shallower than the average competition pool.

Midnight snacks ruin my diet nightly, but maybe not for long! Imagine a chocolate bar that tastes normal but has an enzyme that reduces sugar absorption and turns it into gut-friendly fiber. Sign me up!

Corporate Lunch

In 2014 Amazon paid almost $1 billion for Twitch, the livestreaming platform for gamers. It seems like Amazon is still trying to figure out the cheat code to profitability a decade later.

Apple released a preview of its Apple Intelligence AI features for developers to test out. Siri will now be able to troubleshoot questions about Apple products.

Spirit Airlines is trying to go upmarket with snacks, Wi-Fi, and checked bags included … are you sure we are talking about Spirit?!

Meta agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle a lawsuit over the company allegedly using facial recognition tech to collect data on Texans without their consent. Stay off my face!

Air New Zealand scrapped its 2030 climate target. A lack of cleaner and alternative fuels and potential delays to fleet renewal caused the U-turn midflight.

Starbucks missed on revenues as consumers spend less on their summer drinks despite the company’s new efficiency strategy, which is efficient.

Nobody likes surprise bills. Delta Air Lines reported the CrowdStrike outage cost the company $500 million. Meanwhile, CrowdStrike said Delta’s CEO didn’t respond to its offer to help. I wonder if Delta is going to switch providers

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.

Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.