December 18, 2024

The Appetizer

“I haven’t talked to any of those guys. We talked to them through the playoffs, at the end of the playoffs.”

• Juan Soto when asked if he talked to his now former Yankees teammates during the free agent process. Ouch.

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

• 338 and $1,300: The average miles traveled, and dollars spent by attendees of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
• $28 million: The price tag on Judy Garland’s iconic ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, sold at auction.
• $1.1 trillion: The combined net worth of women among the world’s 500 richest individuals.
• $765 million: The 15-year payday Juan Soto just signed up for with the Mets.
• 2.7%: Last week’s year-over-year consumer price index reading – slightly higher than expected.
• $10,000: The current cost of one ton of cocoa futures. That’s one pricey chocolate bar.

Dig In
New Innovation Spotlight

As 2024 winds down, let’s take a quick look at some headlines that connect to our Long-Term Investment Themes. While AI has dominated the conversation around the Fourth Industrial Revolution, today we’re turning the spotlight to two other game-changers: quantum computing and a smarter, more connected world.

First up, Google’s new quantum chip, Willow, is making waves. Not only can it slash errors exponentially as more qubits are added (remember those from our past chats?), but it also cracked a problem quantum scientists have wrestled with for nearly 30 years. Oh, and no big deal – it performed a calculation in under five minutes that would take the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. Yes, septillion. Mind blown.

Meanwhile, Apple’s gearing up for 2025 with its Apple Watch Ultra, featuring off-the-grid satellite texting. Now you can vent about crying babies from 30,000 feet high! Plus, the watch might include a blood pressure alert, a small step toward a smarter, healthier world.

So, one day when your grandkids can’t imagine slow computers or not having in-flight texting, you can roll your eyes and say, “Back in my day …”.

Weekly Specials

Remember when Sid from Ice Age found all those freaky frozen monsters? Well, real life just got kind of close to that – minus the “monsters.” A team of international polar researchers has discovered a community of microorganisms (aka microbiota) living beneath Antarctica’s permanently frozen Lake Enigma. No word yet on if they’re plotting world domination.

Japanese Airlines already has an impressive record for not losing bags. Now, they’re stepping up their game. For a fee, they’ll deliver your luggage directly to your hotel to help reduce airport chaos. Should U.S. airlines adopt this? Maybe not – they’re still struggling to get bags from the plane to the carousel.

Remember the infamous banana duct-taped to a wall at Art Basel? Well, a Chinese crypto mogul just bought it for a jaw-dropping $6.2 million. Did he frame it? Put it in a vault? Nope. He ate it. Art never tasted so expensive.

A New Zealand man just won the Spanish World Scrabble Championships. The kicker? He doesn’t speak Spanish. Turns out, being a Scrabble wizard doesn’t require fluency, just a lot of memorized words and an incredible poker face.

Corporate Lunch

Lululemon stock jumped as international growth has helped offset slowing U.S. sales. They must have just discovered the belt bag.

Dollar General is testing same-day delivery in an effort to compete with Walmart. How are they going to fit a whole grocery haul on an E-bike?

A recent survey estimates 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. have used Ozempic or a similar GLP-1 medication.

SpaceX’s company valuation took off to ~$350 billion based on a secondary share sale.

Hershey’s rejected a preliminary takeover offer from Mondelez International. Two titans of the treat game are going at it in negotiations. Who will edge out the better price multiple?

Amazon is selling cars now, why not? Bring your trade-in to the return counter at your nearest Whole Foods.

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.