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- Thursday's Scoop: Wobble 🌤️
Thursday's Scoop: Wobble 🌤️
23andMe's Data Breach & Pepsi's Price Pushback
Scoops Team
January 04, 2024
Hey friend - you’ve almost made it through the first week of the year. Based on the number of OOO replies this week, many people are still mailing it in. Enjoy this snooze of a week.
Here’s what you need to know today…
Big Picture
Companies are still hiring, and layoffs are low.
It paid to switch jobs last year.
Mortgage rates are down but still too expensive for most Americans.
The Market: ⬇️ -0.3%
S&P 500: 4,688.68
1Mo: +3% | 1Yr: +23% | 5Yr: +81%
The market wavered lower for the third straight day after a big rally to end the year. The job market stayed stronger than expected last month, worrying investors about inflation. Corporate sales reports have been disappointing.
Companies are still hiring, and layoffs are low. The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims dropped last week to 202,000, the lowest level in months and in line with a healthy economy. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits for consecutive weeks fell as well. Payroll provider ADP reported companies added 164,000 new employees in December. The leisure, hospitality, and construction sectors did most of the hiring.
It paid to change jobs last year. Payroll processing company ADP reported a 5.4% median increase in compensation in 2023 for people who stayed in their jobs but an 8% increase for job changers. Overall, wage growth has slowed in the past few months.
Mortgage rates have dropped but remain too expensive for many Americans. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage ended the year at 6.8%, down significantly from the peak of 8% in October but double what it was two years ago. Mortgage applications to purchase a new home are down 12% in the past year.
How are you feeling about the economy? |
Company Scoops 🗣️🌎💰
💡Join the board at America’s biggest companies. Vote and judge their decisions.
 23andMe | DNA Data Breach 23andMe suffered a cyber attack in December that exposed the genetic and ancestry data of nearly half of its users, about 7 million people. The genetic testing company has since changed its terms and blamed users for password reuse to limit its liability. |
 PepsiCo | Price Backlash One of the biggest grocery chains in Europe will stop selling PepsiCo products, from soda to Lays chips, in protest of the conglomerate's inflated price tags. PepsiCo made high profit projections for 2024, expecting to increase prices more. |
 Walgreens | Frugal Times Walgreens cut its dividend in half, paying less of its profit to shareholders to save cash and invest in its expansion into health care services. The pharmacy chain's new CEO is focused on reducing costs amid slower sales. |
 Peloton | TikTok Fitness Peloton landed a massive partnership with TikTok to provide the platform with short-form workout videos, opening Peloton to an audience of over a billion users. The fitness platform has shifted focus from machines to digital subscriptions. |
 Eli Lilly | Direct-to-Consumer Drugs Eli Lilly launched a new website for its blockbuster weight loss drug that allows patients to get virtual prescriptions and have the treatment shipped to their door. The drugmaker has seen explosive demand for its treatments. |
(These links only work for 24 hours while the story is live.)
Inside Scoop 🤓
What do investors use to understand the economy and jobs market?
There are four main reports people watch to understand trends in the labor market.
The main jobs report comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of each month. It highlights the unemployment rate, new jobs added, and wage growth.
The Labor Department also releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) each month but on a one-month lag. That report helps us understand how many open positions there are, how many people quit their jobs, and how many were hired.
There's also a monthly private-sector survey from payroll services company ADP that doesn't include government jobs and the weekly initial unemployment claims (a proxy for layoffs) report from the Labor Department.
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