Apple watch ban - stock unaffected.

A surprise with housing prices.

A grab-bag bull phrase being dusted off.

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Warm Up

- Slow volume - boring market (you know what they say)

- China is testing some market moving ideas

- New Year Coming - markets Closed Monday

- Another GRAB-BAG Phase - Dusted off....

Market Update

- The real Santa Claus rally - the final days

- House prices - what?

- Boosting Buybacks  - One Company

- China wrecks markets - for a day

Home Price Index

- October S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index 4.9% vs 5.0% consensus

- Prior reading was +3.9%

Grab-Bag - Bull Phrase

- Cash on The Sidelines

- The stock market is set to see a significant boost next year, thanks to a record $6 trillion and a growing cash pile in money market funds - according to FundStrat

-- (UBERBULL Shop)

- - Fundstat's logic: If the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates next year, this would hold more true as the risk-free interest rate on money market funds will also fall. This would make holding cash in money market funds less appealing as compared to putting it in the stock market.

China - Gamming

- Latest:

-- China approved 105 domestic games on Monday, the latest indication that Beijing is softening its stance after its move to tighten industry restrictions led to a $80 billion rout last week.

--- The titles included those operated by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and NetEase Inc., China’s two leading game publishers that have been pummeled by Beijing’s new rules. Monday’s approvals show the Chinese authorities support the development of online gaming, an industry association said in a post on WeChat republished by the official Xinhua news agency.

- What happened a few days earlier

- - On Friday, Chinese officials announced new draft rules aimed at limiting how much gamers could spend and restricting rewards that encourage them to spend more time online.

- The announcement was a surprise and ended up spooking investors and sending markets into a tailspin.

- Games giant Tencent saw its share price drop as much as 16% while the stock of its rival NetEase tumbled a record 28%. Shares of the social-media service Bilibili, which is popular with gamers, tanked 14%.

Consumer Sentiment!

- December Consumer Confidence 110.7 vs. 104.0 Briefing.com consensus; prior revised to 101.0 from 102.0

- Look at this chart and look at a chart of equity markets - pretty much identical. Wealth Effect is real and will play a significant role in how inflation/disinflation/deflation plays out.

Spending Report

- Mastercard Spending Pulse reports sales increased 3.1% YoY during the holiday season (Nov 1 trhu Dec 24); NRF predicted spending would increase 3-4% in 2023

- Restaurants (+7.8%), Grocery (+2.1%), and Apparel (+2.4%) had the best performance.

- Jewelry (-2.0%) and Electronics (-0.4%) were laggards.

China Car Announcement

- Nio launched the ET9 EV

- The company also confirmed the launch of a low-priced brand called Alps.

- Nio will focus on the European market in 2024.

- High end is supposedly in competion with the Porche Panarama and the Maybach

- The ET9 executive sedan, positioned in the same class as Mercedes Benz’s Maybach and Porsche’s Panamera series, is expected to start delivery in the first quarter of 2025 at an estimated price of 800,000 yuan (S$152,355),

Apple Stops Selling Watch

- Stock barley budges

- Apple on Tuesday appealed a decision to ban imports of its watches based on a complaint from medical monitoring technology company Masimo, after President Joe Biden's administration declined to veto a government tribunal.