Monday's Scoop: Moving☀️

Hey friend - hope you had a good enough weekend to avoid the scaries. Make sure to catch up with our Weekly Scoop.

Here’s what you need to know today…

1. Small businesses aren’t paying big bonuses this year.

2. The restaurant industry has finally recovered from lockdowns.

3. The super-wealthy are paying more than ever for their Hamptons homes.

S&P 500: 4,927.93
1Mo: +4% | 1Yr: +23% | 5Yr: +82%

The market notched another record high today as investors dismissed the escalating conflict in the Middle East and celebrated lower inflation and decent corporate profits.

Small businesses have had to cut back on employee bonuses amidst more challenging conditions. Payroll provider Gusto reported that the average year-end cash bonus fell 21% in 2023 from the previous year, and fewer workers received them. The cutbacks hit every industry.

Restaurants are making a comeback. A new report from Yelp indicated that almost 54,000 restaurants opened their doors in 2023, up 10% from the previous year and 2% more than in 2019. Dessert shops, creperies, and hot pot restaurants have seen the hottest growth. Identifying how many restaurants went out of business during the pandemic is difficult, but things have finally turned around.

America’s wealthiest are still spending big on lavish summer homes. According to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Hamptons real estate prices reached new records last month. The price of the median Long Island, NY beach home sold in the fourth quarter rose to $1.9 million, up 45% from the year prior and more than double pre-pandemic levels. A fifth of the sales closed at $5 million or more. The median price of the top 10% of sales rose to $12.6 million. There’s so much demand for these homes that one in four sales ended in a bidding war.

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Making sense of financial news: Top & Bottom Line

Investors and commentators will often evaluate a company's top-line and bottom-line growth statistics.

Top line refers to the company's gross sales or revenue, essentially how good the company is at bringing in money.

Bottom line refers to net income or profits after accounting for all of the company's expenses, indicating how strong the company is at managing its operational costs. The terms come from the figures' location on the income statement in the company's financial reports.