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Hey friend - we hope your company holiday parties are filled with hot gossip and new work friends.
Here’s what you need to know today…
Big Picture
Americans haven’t cut back on shopping yet.
Layoffs are still pretty low.
Rents are finally falling.
The Market: ⬆️+0.3%
S&P 500: 4,719.55
1Mo: +5% | 1Yr: +21% | 5Yr: +95%
The market continued the positive momentum today and closed within 2% of its all-time high. Investors are still excited about policymakers' tone shift at yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting, signaling lower borrowing costs ahead.
Americans haven’t cut back on spending, a good sign for the economy. The Commerce Department reported US retail sales rose 0.3% in November as shoppers kicked off the holiday season with more purchases across nearly every category. It wasn’t just gift shopping. Spending at restaurants and bars surged 1.6%, a positive indicator of a healthy consumer.
Layoffs are still pretty low. The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims fell last week to 202,000, in line with pre-pandemic levels. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits for consecutive weeks rose again, mostly trending higher, but unemployment is still near record lows.
Rents are falling across the country, providing some relief for families. A report from the digital real estate platform Redfin showed median rents were down 2% in November from the year before. The median rent across the country is still 22% higher than in November 2019, but increased apartment vacancies have helped bring prices down. Construction keeps going, outpacing demand.
How are you feeling about the economy? |
Company Scoops 🗣️🌎💰
💡Join the board at America’s biggest companies. Vote and judge their decisions.
 Moderna | Cancer Fighter Moderna's skin cancer vaccine proved to cut fatality risk in half and reduced the likelihood of spreading by 60% after three years when combined with Merck's immunotherapy in midstage trials. The drugmaker aims for regulatory approval in 2025. |
 Rivian | Customer 2 Rivian landed its second commercial electric van customer after ending its exclusivity deal with Amazon earlier this year, agreeing to create vans for AT&T in 2024. The young electric truck startup has overcome its early production issues. |
 Starbucks | Unfair Fight Starbucks allegedly shuttered 23 cafes to prevent its employees from organizing for better pay and working conditions, and regulators have demanded they be reopened. The coffee chain faces 100 regulatory complaints for union-busting activity. |
 Chipotle | Healthier Soil Chipotle aims to improve the nutritional value of its ingredients and reduce the emissions to source them through regenerative agriculture robots and low-emissions fertilizers. The burrito chain aims to cut its emissions in half by 2030. |
 Intel | AI Race Intel revealed a new slate of chips it hopes will help it capture some of the artificial intelligence market share, including server chips and PC processors that can run AI locally. Intel was the largest chipmaker for decades but has fallen behind. |
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Inside Scoop 🤓
Why is everyone talking about a soft landing?
Investors, economists, and financial commentators have finally put aside their skepticism and given policymakers credit for getting inflation under control without causing a recession.
A soft landing in economic policy refers to cooling an overheating economy to prevent inflation from spiraling out of control while avoiding mass unemployment and an economic downturn.
With inflation at 40-year highs, the Federal Reserve launched the most severe policy action in decades to try and get it under control. For two years, the Fed implemented steep interest rate hikes to slow borrowing, spending, and general business activity to stop living costs from rising so quickly. Monetary policy is not an exact science, so most people assumed the Fed would over-correct, restricting the economy too much and pushing it into recession, aka a hard landing. The Fed proved everyone wrong.
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