🐤 Power to the potheads

Markets: Wall Street has been flying high throughout much of the year, but things are slowing down as 2024 comes to a close. Investors are hoping the S&P 500’s recent losses are an anomaly, and both the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to record slight gains yesterday. Market strategist Terry Sandven says “equities are trending sideways” as traders look ahead to upcoming employment reports and Federal Reserve updates.

Chips are down: China is responding to new sanctions imposed by the U.S. to restrict the communist nation’s ability to produce or procure the semiconductors needed to produce powerful AI or military technology. In return, China announced that the export of several elements required to produce high-tech chips to the U.S. will be strictly limited. The materials named in the new order are gallium, germanium, and antimony. America has implemented additional restrictions including a limit on the number of Chinese companies allowed to import equipment.

Strike three: When Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair landed a blow to Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s head during Sunday’s matchup, it resulted in his third violation this season. The NFL ruled it an “unacceptable” hit and reports indicate Lawrence sustained a concussion as a result. Al-Shaair was booted from the game and shortly thereafter was reportedly involved in a skirmish. Although he took to social media to issue an apology, he has also vowed to challenge his three-game suspension with an appeal.

Paying the penalty: A federal investigation determined that Qvest LLC, a cleaning company operating on a contract basis in an Iowa meat processing plant, violated child labor laws by allowing 11 children to work with hazardous materials during overnight shifts at the facility. A ruling in the case requires Qvest to pay a $171,000 fine, offer additional resources to whistleblowers, and revise its policies regarding underage workers. The same plant, Seaboard Triumph Foods, was involved in a similar scandal with a different contractor in May.

Food fight: President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services sparked a mix of praise and criticism from both sides of the aisle. When it comes to Kennedy’s concerns about processed foods, Trump has already encountered some pushback from within his own party. Conservative Republicans who prioritize limiting government regulations are worried that Kennedy’s agenda would result in too much oversight across multiple industries, most notably agriculture.

From Cheech and Chong to Harold and Kumar, marijuana has played a significant role in pop culture for generations. But over the past couple of decades, its use for medicinal and recreational purposes has become thoroughly mainstream.

An exploding market

To say that more people are smoking more pot in America than ever before is an understatement. The availability and diversity of cannabis products across much of the country is evidence of just how drastically the social stigma surrounding weed has changed.

The trend can be seen in just a few quick facts:

• Between 1992 and 2022, the number of daily pot smokers grew from 1 million to 17.7 million.
• Almost half of all U.S. states have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
• In addition to smoking, products like vapes, oils, and edibles offer their own unique experiences.

Some studies suggest that marijuana is quickly catching up to alcohol as the mind-altering substance of choice for the American people. But just because it seems like everyone is doing it doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea.

Consider the downsides

Weed has some pretty significant medicinal properties and there’s no denying that millions of potheads across the U.S. see it as a generally harmless way to mellow out. Budt as pot becomes more potent and its use continues to increase, experts are starting to sound the alarm about potential long-term health risks.

For starters, there’s concern about addiction, with roughly 18 million Americans believed to currently exhibit signs of cannabis use disorder. Then there are studies linking heavy and/or prolonged pot use to mental health problems, particularly among young people.

And healthcare providers say they’re seeing a rise in cases of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which can cause nausea and vomiting in some frequent pot users.

We’ve bid farewell to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday … and stats are now starting to show just how much online shopping consumers across the nation and around the world did during the first official week of the holiday shopping season.

An upward trend

The short story is that all the early estimates reveal an uptick in Cyber Monday spending this week. There are some relatively minor discrepancies between major firms like Adobe and Salesforce, but the general trend is consistent.

Here are some of the notable figures:

• Total U.S. online sales on Monday came in at around $13 billion.
• That constitutes a year-over-year increase of between 2% and more than 7%.
• Global Cyber Monday sales approached $50 billion.
• Black Friday drove nearly $75 billion in global e-commerce purchases.

Taking the entire Cyber Week — from Thanksgiving to the following Monday — into account, Adobe reported that U.S. spending topped $41 billion, or 8.2% higher than 2023. Salesforce offered an even more impressive haul, reporting $76 billion in sales for a 7% annual increase.

Around the world, Salesforce estimated that Cyber Week sales were just under $315 billion for a 6% bump over last year.

Just getting started

Post-Thanksgiving sales might jumpstart the shopping season, but there’s plenty more time for shoppers to make their purchases. And online commerce continues to make up an increasingly large share of those sales, as Adobe determined in its forecast.

By the time the holiday season ends, Americans will spend an estimated $240.8 billion, which is 8.4% higher than in 2023. Mobile shopping is an even faster growing segment and now represents about 57% of all online sales.

Some of the biggest savings thus far this holiday season have been on electronics, makeup, and apparel.

For several years, social media users rushed to share their Spotify Wrapped recap of the music they’d listened to over the past 12 months. And Amazon Music has clearly been taking notes about its competitor’s success.

2024 Delivered

In its own thinly veiled attempt to capture some of the buzz surrounding Spotify Wrapped, Amazon announced this week that its Music platform would be introducing a new feature called 2024 Delivered.

Each personalized recap will include standard stuff like:

• Top artists
• Most-played songs
• Popular genres

Furthermore, users will be able to see their favorite podcast and the song they requested Alexa to play the most. Another highly anticipated feature involves messages from entertainers, which will be sent to a select number of users with Alexa devices.

Some other individualized stats will be integrated into the feature, which will also include animated cards made to be shared on social media. In addition to Spotify Wrapped, other music apps like Apple Music and YouTube Music offer similar year-end summaries.

Getting personal

This isn’t Amazon Music’s first foray into annual recaps, but 2024 Delivered promises a much different experience than the previous My Year In Review playlists the platform provided.

Previously, users only got access to a few dozen of the most popular songs and couldn’t access many statistics, much less share them on social media.

Both Apple Music and YouTube Music also released their personalized reports — 2024 Replay and 2024 Recap, respectively — this week. Both are boasting a few new features of their own this year.

As for the king of the hill, Spotify has not yet announced when it will release this year’s Wrapped, but insiders say it should be surfacing any day now.