Wholesale prices, jobless claims and groceries still going up

Sponsored by UseFidelity

🏛️ Financial News

• 🏛️ Fed to cut rates next week, bringing an end to first phase of easing – MarketWatch: Second chapter in 2025 will feature more caution and fewer promises from Powell and his colleagues.

• 💼 US weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 242K vs. 220K expected – Reuters: As demand for labor cools, the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week and more people continued to collect unemployment checks at the end of November relative to the beginning of the year.

• 🛒 Consumer prices rose in November, as inflation remains sticky – Investopedia: The consumer price index (CPI), rose 2.7% over the year in November, up from 2.6% in October, marking the second consecutive month inflation has risen year-over-year. Groceries and used cars were among the items that got noticeably more expensive.

📈 Stocks

• 📈 Record inflows into US stocks drove ‘Santa Clause rally’ in the last days of 2024 – Morningstar: According to Goldman Sachs, Donald Trump's victory in the November elections, the prospect of interest rate cuts and record inflows into U.S. stock markets have put the S&P 500 index on course for a 'Santa rally' in the final few trading sessions of 2024.

• 💹 ‘Magnificent Seven’ hits another milestone. Here’s why it could continue to dominate the market in 2025 – MarketWatch: Big Tech companies are expected to see earnings growth continue in the new year.

• 🔍 Google launches Gemini 2.0, its new AI model for practically everything – The Verge: Gemini 2.0 can generate images and audio, is faster and cheaper to run, and is meant to make AI agents possible.

• 🔌 Tesla stock rides Trump effect to all-time highs – Yahoo! Finance: Tesla stock is up over 73% since Trump’s election win. CEO Elon Musk’s big bet on a Trump win and the resulting influence he is seen as having on the new administration has investors bullish on Tesla’s prospects.

📊 Exchange Traded Funds

• 🤖 AI’s growth is just getting started, BlackRock’s thematic ETF head says – CNBC: BlackRock expects infrastructure and cybersecurity plays to shine in 2025, introducing its iShares Future AI & Tech ETF ($ARTY) and AI Innovation & Tech Active ETF ($BAI) as potential ways to benefit from the rise in AI.

• 🚀 Cathie Wood’s ARKK gets a 30% Trump bump, but outflows persist and top $3 billion in 2024 – CNBC: Innovation investor Cathie Wood’s struggling $ARKK fund enjoyed a much-needed boost from Donald Trump’s reelection, but that hasn’t translated into investor inflows.

🏡 Real Estate

• 🏢 52% Of Federal Office Leases Can Be Terminated By End Of Trump's Term – Bisnow: If President-elect Donald Trump wants to accelerate the government's downsizing of its office footprint to cut costs, he'll have plenty of opportunities.

• 🏡 Mortgage refinance demand surges 27%, as interest rates drop for the third straight week – CNBC: Applications to refinance a home loan surged 27% week to week and were 42% higher than the same week one year ago, while applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 4% for the week and were 4% higher than the same week one year ago.

💱 Crypto Currencies

• 💱 Already up 500% in 2024, Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy to join the Nasdaq 100 and heavily-traded QQQ ETF – CNBC: Effective Dec. 23, MicroStrategy, which has become a play on bitcoin, will be joining the Nasdaq 100 index. Exchange-traded funds that follow the index, including the popular Invesco QQQ Trust, will become automatic buyers of the stock.

• 💱 Spot bitcoin ETFs break $4B in inflows during first weeks of December – Cryptoslate: According to Farside data, these entries tallied across several funds, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, Ark, Invesco, Franklin, Valkyrie, VanEck, WTree, and Grayscale. The movement began shortly after Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark on Dec. 5 and continued amid steady price action.

• 🏛️ Texas House introduces bill to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve – CNBC: Legislation was introduced in the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, which could serve as a proving ground for the U.S. Treasury.

• 🦘 Australian pension and wealth fund reveals rare wager on Bitcoin futures – Yahoo! Finance: AMP Ltd. has become one of the nation’s first large retirement managers to invest in cryptocurrency, allocating $27M AUD ($17.2M USD) to Bitcoin futures.

🛢️ Commodities

• ☕ Coffee prices climb to near 50-year highs, and it may take years for the rally to run out of steam – CNBC: Drought and high temperatures, alongside a global reliance on supplies from few regions, regarded as the key drivers for the dramatic price rise.

• 🍳 Egg prices soar (beef, too) and deliver inflation shock to grocery shoppers – MarketWatch: Food prices post their biggest increase in almost two years, while President-elect Donald Trump concedes it’d be ‘very hard’ to bring down grocery-store prices.

We’ll be back in your inbox next Saturday morning, thanks again to UseFidelity for sponsoring.

And thank you for reading, have a great weekend!

Happy Unprompting!
Rawee
[email protected]