December 11, 2024

The Appetizer

“I know a lot of people say it looks funny. It looks like a duck or a platypus. It does. But I tell them it gets the job done. It works for me.”

• Letter carrier Richard Burton regarding his new electric USPS delivery truck. You be the judge!

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

• $49,263.47: The cost of the 12 gifts from the classic song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, according to the PNC Christmas Price Index^®, up 5.4% from a year ago.
• $15.8 million: How much U.S. consumers spent every minute over the course of two hours on Cyber Monday night.
• 2,500: The number of pies in the back of a delivery van that was stolen from Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks in northern England.
• 27 million: The number of Champagne bottles shipped to the U.S. last year.
• 227,000: The number of jobs the U.S. economy added in November.

Dig In
Black Friday Shopping

Remember when Black Friday meant braving the cold, camping out for hours, and then maybe wrestling someone for the last big-ticket item on the shelf? Sure, that might still happen, but these days, most of the action happens from the cozy comfort of your couch. Online shopping is where it’s at – e-commerce sales increased by 14% compared to last year!

Unsurprisingly, Amazon made out like a bandit. Their marathon 12-day holiday shopping event shattered records for both sales and items sold. But what caught the consumer’s eye this year? Beats headphones, Barbie dolls, Play-Doh and … Shark vacuums? The vacuums sound like a pet owner purchase to me. Fun fact: More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store during the event were from independent sellers. Not too bad for the little guys!

Zooming out a bit, during the traditional five-day shopping period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, the average shopper spent $235, up $8 from last year. Out of these shoppers, nearly half (49%) snagged apparel and accessories, a third went for toys, and 27% went for gift cards (because who doesn’t love a safe bet?).

Even though the big sales are mostly over, the spending isn’t slowing down. The National Retail Federation predicts retail sales will grow between 2.5% and 3.5% through November and December, generating almost $989 billion in retail sales. That’s a lot of holiday cheer!

Weekly Specials

Denmark has five times more pigs and cows than people, with nearly two-thirds of its land used for farming. So to tackle agriculture’s climate impact, Denmark is introducing a “belch and manure tax” that will take effect in 2030. Are farmers going to have to keep track of their animals’ burps?

Notre Dame, the iconic medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, suffered a devastating fire in 2019. After years of restoration, 2,000 oak trees, and generous donations, it has been beautifully restored. Paris, get ready for even more tourists.

The Oxford English Dictionary has announced another word of the year: “brainrot.” What does it mean? It’s “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental state, often caused by overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging material, especially online content.” Blame all that social media scrolling – I can’t deny it, I have brainrot too!

Spotify Wrapped came out this week, so it is time for your coworkers to see which finance podcasts you listen to at your desk that sound like Sabrina Carpenter blasting through your headphones. Taylor Swift was the most streamed artist this year, followed by The Weeknd.

Corporate Lunch

Finance titan BlackRock is acquiring HPS, a private credit firm with almost $150 billion in assets under management. This feels like when the Philadelphia Eagles traded for Saquon Barkley. Where do they find the cap space?

Walmart just acquired Vizio TVs for $2.3 billion to push more advertising. Skip all the commercials you want; they can put their name on the remote now.

Foot Locker stumbled a little bit, falling 15% after issuing a gloomy holiday outlook, with “softness” in demand for Nike.

Amazon is facing a lawsuit by the Washington, D.C. attorney general, who alleges the company excluded neighborhoods from Prime delivery. Will free two-day shipping become a right in the U.S.? Let’s see what happens.

We have super computers at home: Amazon is building its own super AI computer with Trainium2 chips made in-house.

Apple is using these Amazon AI chips for some services like search, with the chance to move up from the G League to train Apple Intelligence models.

Salesforce is rolling out AI agents for clients. I only want help if the agent can tell me if there is a crosswalk in a picture. How does it feel, AI?

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.