Kissing Ass is good for the wallet

Fed is about to meet and make a rate decision

Time's Person of the Year!

Whistleblower found dead

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Warm-Up

- Kissing Ass is good for the wallet

- Fed is about to meet and make a rate decision

- Person of the Year!

- Whistleblower found dead

- Markets

- Odd - DJIA down for 7 days, NASDAQ can't be stopped (TSLA pushing this time - once again a reason to look at market cap weightings)

- Fanning the flames - A new name into NASDAQ 100

- Earnings - A few interesting data points

- Social Security benefits increase

- Yes and No, Inflation and No Inflation

- Not since... 2018 or 1978?

Reminder -  the CTP Contestants for 2024 CTP Cup

Michael Bowling

Kirk Saathoff

Eric Harvey

Chad Laajala

Tim Dewey

Paul Kinder

Anson Brady (2023 CTP Cup Winner)

---Emails have gone out...

Fed Meeting Dec 18th

- 89% probability of a 0.25% rate cut

- Fed has its back to the wall - markets are dictating

- No reason to believe that they need a cut, although the would not want to worry markets or surprise them in any way

- All reporting shows that they will do the cut, back off a little as to the amount of potential cuts coming in recognition of the fact that the economy is still running well

DJIA - Records?

- The DJIA has been down for 8 days in a row and that has not happened since 2018.

- If the DJIA declines today, that would take us back to the 1970's, 1978 to be exact when there was a 9 day decline.

- But, that is the DJIA, the NASDAQ an SP500 have been holding up.

- Moreover, the fall for the DJIA this month is less that 3%, so not much damage done to the index itself.

Another Sinkhole Warning

- SP500 equal weighted is down more than 3% for the MTD.

- SP500 up slightly MTD

- NASDAQ 100 up moer than 5%

- Small-caps down 3%

BUT - Wait....

- A measure of wholesale price rose more than expected in November, adding fuel to the belief that progress in bringing down inflation has slowed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.

- On an annual basis, PPI rose 3%, the biggest advance since February 2023.

- This is after an inline CPI number.

- Rates are on the rise for bonds, as expected

--- Mark this date - inflation could make a comeback in 2025 and totally offside the fed (And they are fanning the flames )

AND Consumers are Spending

- November Retail Sales 0.7% vs. 0.5% consensus; prior revised to 0.5% from 0.4%

But - ISM Composite - Rolling Over

ISM Composite

CHIPS

- Shares of Broadcom popped more than 21% Friday morning, pushing the company’s market cap beyond $1 trillion for the first time. It will be Broadcom’s best trading day on record if the move holds until the closing bell.

The move comes after the company reported fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s expectations for earnings and showed strong artificial intelligence revenue growth.

- Broadcom reported $14.05 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, up 51% year over year but shy of the $14.09 billion expected by analysts according to LSEG. In Broadcom’s semiconductor solutions group, which includes its AI chips, revenue increased 12% to $8.23 billion from $8.03 billion a year ago.

More Chips

- US planning on restricting AI  Chips around the world

- Planning on closing China's backdoor access

-Washington plans rules limiting semiconductor shipments to some countries accused of supplying Beijing

- NVDA, MSFT, GOOG, GOOGL, AMD, INTC, SMH

Nuclear - getting some traction

- SMRs - Small Nuclear Reactors

- Small modular reactors,