November 13, 2024

The Appetizer

“The key is not to make the sale. The key is to cultivate the customer.”

• Bernard Marcus, Co-Founder of Home Depot, who recently passed away at 95.

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

• 38,100: The number of televisions of at least 97 inches sold between January and September this year, up 1,000% from the same period last year.
• $97,000 and 38: The median income and age of first-time homebuyers in 2024, both all-time highs.
• 2,000+: The number of miles that an emperor penguin travelled from Antarctica before ending up in an Australian beach.
• 41,024,320: The number of digits in the world’s largest known prime number, which was just discovered by a 36-year-old programmer.
• $989 billion: The anticipated retail spending by American consumers this November and December holiday season, up 3% from last year.

Dig In
Breaking Down Last Week’s Move

What a week for the markets! Voters reelected Donald Trump, Republicans took control of the Senate, and the Federal Reserve (Fed) cut rates by 25 basis points. The result? The S&P 500 had its best week of 2024. Let’s try to understand what the market is thinking.

Investors like to know what’s coming. After months of campaigning, we now have a clearer picture of the political landscape. This helps investors make better predictions about company earnings, the economy, and policy changes. With Trump’s win, we saw a relief rally in the markets, and sectors and companies expected to benefit from his policies outperformed.

There’s buzz around potential tax cuts, easing regulations, and tariffs. Many of these policies are expected to benefit the economy, boosting corporate profits and the consumer. For example, lower taxes should put more cash into the hands of consumers, and easing regulations should benefit certain sectors like financials and energy stocks.

Still, the new administration faces a balancing act. Addressing the budget, debt, and spending will be crucial, especially with the goal of reducing the national debt over time. For a deeper dive into the election results and investment outlook, check out our latest Sight|Lines or watch the replay of our election insights.

Weekly Specials

With college athletes now getting paid, fans and students are feeling the pinch as colleges scramble to cover the costs. Schools nationwide have added “talent fees” on sports tickets, hiked up concession prices, and even tacked on extra charges to tuition bills to cover the expenses. After all, “the money has to come from somewhere.”

You’ve traveled to Rome, all set to toss a coin into the iconic Trevi Fountain, only to find it bone dry. Instead, visitors now throw coins over a plastic barrier into a small, makeshift pool – a far cry from the usual tradition.

After just a week in Texas, I picked up a bit of a southern accent, so it’s no shock that eleven scientists in Antarctica, isolated for six months, developed their own accent, especially in words with “ou” sounds.

A palm-sized wooden satellite, LingoSat, was just launched into space to test the potential of renewable materials for future space living. “Wood” you trust a wood satellite?

Corporate Lunch

Nvidia booted its rival Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and paint company Sherwin-Williams subbed out the chemical company Dow.

We have seen a bushel of Apple news recently. These are the last two stories for a bit, I promise. Reports have come out that the company may be copying Meta’s homework and is considering the development of smart glasses.

Long distance calling: Apple dropped $1.5 billion with Globalstar so we can get our cell service from space!

Boeing is finally getting off the tarmac and ended the worker strike after settling on a 38% raise for workers over the next four years.

Elon Musk said a $25,000 Tesla that can’t drive itself would be pointless and silly. I guess if it can’t peel out like a Model S, it might as well come with a chauffeur installed.

Amazon has obtained FAA approval to start testing a smaller and thankfully quieter delivery drone.

Meta’s plan for a nuclear power plant to cut its electric bill was foiled by some exotic bees that must be protected. Are they the lawyer bees from the Bee Movie?

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.

Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

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

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index that shows how 30 large, publicly owned companies based in the United States have traded during a standard trading session in the stock market.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.