Wall Street Journal (December 28)
“Corporate America pulled back on diversity programs in 2024 under pressure from activists.” The new year will bring greater challenges as the incoming Trump administration gears up “to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies.” Many corporates “still support diversity efforts, even if they avoid the term, bend to the demands of activists or try to sidestep skirmishes with Trump’s administration. CEOs also risk backlash among customers and employees.”
Tags: 2024, Activists, Backlash, CEOs, Corporate America, Customers, DEI, Demands, Diversity programs, Employees, Equity, Inclusion, Pressure, Sidestep, Trump administration
Barron’s (December 23)
Brazil ends 2024 in a paradox. The economy is strong with GDP expected to “reach 3% for the third year running. Unemployment is at a record low and the trade surplus at an all-time high.” Nevertheless, “markets are awful.” Investors appear to be “looking past the healthy present to a recurrence of Brazil’s chronic economic disease: excessive government spending that spurs runaway inflation and crowds out growth with debt payments.”
Tags: 2024, Brazil, Chronic, Debt payments, Economy, GDP, Government spending, Growth, Investors, Markets, Paradox, Recurrence, Runaway inflation, Trade surplus, Unemployment
Washington Post (December 6)
“Global temperatures remain at near-record levels. After 2023 ended up the warmest year in human history by far, 2024 is almost certain to be even warmer. Now, some scientists say this could indicate fundamental changes are happening to the global climate that are raising temperatures faster than anticipated.”
Tags: 2023, 2024, Faster, Fundamental changes, Global, Global climate, Human history, Record levels, Temperatures, Warmest
Seeking Alpha (October 19)
“The benchmark S&P 500 index (SP500) on Friday notched a six-week win streak, its longest weekly advance of 2024. It also notched its 46th and 47th record close of the year. Meanwhile, it was a historic week for the venerable Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI). The blue-chip gauge surpassed the 43,000 points mark for the first time ever while posting its 37th through 40th record close of the year.”
Tags: 2024, Advance, Benchmark, Blue-chip, Dow Jones, First time, Historic week, Record close, S&P 500, Surpassed, Win streak
Bloomberg (August 11)
“Japanese equities shed $1.1 trillion in value as they kicked off August with a record three-day loss.” Having some of the froth knocked off, however, is providing bullish investors with “a fresh reason to buy what has been one of 2024’s hottest trades.”
Tags: $1.1 trillion, 2024, August, Bullish, Buy, Equities, Froth, Investors, Japan, Loss, Reason, Record, Shed, Value
MarketWatch (July 6)
“The bond market has enjoyed relatively limited volatility in the first half of 2024, but that calm could be disrupted by growing worry about the U.S. fiscal outlook ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election. Of all the wild cards in the months ahead for the $27 trillion Treasury market… a rising U.S. government deficit is regarded as perhaps the greatest long-term risk facing the market right now because of its potential to translate into higher volatility during the second half.”
Tags: $27 trillion, 2024, Bond market, Deficit, Fiscal outlook, Growing worry, H1, H2, Market, Presidential election, Risk, Treasury market, U.S., Volatility
The Week (June 28)
“There may be no bigger scramble in business right now than the race to dominate retail media,” which is expected to “account for more than a fifth of all digital ad spending in 2024.” The stakes are high. Amazon, for example, “earned $46.9 billion from retail ads,” which was more than all of Coca-Cola’s global revenue “and makes Amazon the third-largest advertising platform in the United States, behind only Google and Facebook.”
Tags: $46.9 billion, 2024, Advertising platform, Amazon, Business, Coca Cola, Digital, Dominate, Facebook, Google, Race, Retail media, Scramble, Spending, U.S.
New York Times (June 14)
“Bigger is better in the stock market these days.” In the S&P 500, the largest group of 50 companies by market cap, was the only group “to have positive returns over the 12 months through June 7” while the group of the 50 “smallest stocks in the index had the biggest losses.” Similarly, the S&P100, which features the largest constituents, “is up more than 17 percent” during 2024, while “the Russell 2000, which tracks the small-cap universe, is up less than 1 percent for the year.”
Tags: 2024, Constituents, Index, Largest, Market cap, Positive returns, Russell 2000, S&P 500, S&P100, Small-cap universe, Stock market
WARC (May 24)
“Social media is now the largest channel worldwide by ad investment, having seized the crown from paid search…. Global social media ad spend is forecast to total $247.3bn in 2024, up 14.3% year on year, a slight deceleration from +16.0% in 2023. The growth is more pronounced in Western markets: growth across five leading Chinese social platforms (Duoyin, Weixin/QQ, Kuaishou, Weibo and Zhihu) analysed by WARC is set to reach only 4.6% next year.”
Tags: $247.3bn, 2024, Ad, Channel, Duoyin, Growth, Investment, Kuaishou, Paid search, Social media, Spend, Weibo, Weixin/QQ, Western market, Worldwide, Zhihu
Wall Street Journal (May 11)
“In the midst of what many expect to be the most toxic presidential campaign in modern history, American businesses are going to extraordinary lengths to stay off the political radar.” In 2020, business leaders felt “they couldn’t afford to stay silent on social and political issues. In 2024, many hope to take a quieter approach.”
Tags: 2020, 2024, Afford, Businesses, Leaders, Political issues, Political radar, Presidential campaign, Quieter, Silent, Social, Toxic, U.S.
