* Federal Reserve leaves rates unchanged, hints at cuts in 2024
* Fed trims core inflation forecast to 2.4% for 2024
* Record debt and high interest rates threaten global economy: World Bank
* Global oil demand has been slowing “drastically”, says IEA
* US wholesale prices flatline in November, pointing to softer inflation
* Business inflation expectations relatively unchanged at 2.4%: Atlanta Fed
* Federal Reserve expects rate cuts in 2024:
Today’s update of the “fair-value” model for the US 10-year Treasury yield reaffirms that the benchmark rate appears unusually high relative to the economic fundamentals. Although that condition has prevailed for some time, the recent slide in the 10-year yield suggests market conditions are starting to normalize the gap, albeit on the margins.
* Fed set to leave rates unchanged for third time in today’s policy meeting
* COP28 climate summit calls for ‘beginning of the end’ for fossil fuels
* Treasury Sec. Yellen says US economy on Path to soft landing
* China says it will boost demand to promote 2024 recovery
* Ford will cut output of electric pickup truck in half due to weak demand
* The business opportunities in oil still far exceed investing in renewable energy
* US headline inflation eases in November, but core CPI remains steady:
Key drivers of the strong performance for the US stock market this year are technology and consumer discretionary sectors, based on a set of ETF proxies through Monday’s close (Dec. 11). By contrast, health care, consumer staples, energy and utilities are the sector losers in 2023.
* Geopolitical risk is top threat for 2024: survey of institutional investors
* World economy may be entering ‘a second cold war’, warns IMF official
* US consumer inflation expectations fall to 2-year low: NY Fed survey
* Goldman Sachs now expects Fed rate cuts by Q3:2024
* The idea of government-backed digital currencies faces rising skepticism
* Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store
* S&P 500 closes decisively above the summer high. Next hurdle is a record high:
With just three weeks left to the year, nearly all corners of global markets are on track to post gains for 2023, based on a set of index ETFs. The US stock market is still leading the field by a wide margin. Meanwhile, commodities are the downside outlier.
* No change in rates expected for Wednesday’s Fed meeting, but…
* Central bank’s comments on possible future actions will be in focus
* OPEC losing control of oil market as US production offsets cuts
* China’s deflation is deepening as consumer prices fall at fastest rate in 3 years
* FDA approves gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease
* US Consumer Sentiment Index rebounds in Dec, reversing recent declines:
● Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (revised ed.)
Edited by Peter D. Kaufman
Summary via publisher (Stripe Press)
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up,” Charlie Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compilation of 11 talks by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs. Delivered with Munger’s characteristic rhetorical flair, Poor Charlie’s Almanack draws on his encyclopedic knowledge of business, finance, history, philosophy, physics, and ethics to introduce the latticework of mental models that underpin his rational and rigorous approach to life, learning, and decision-making. It is an essential volume for any reader seeking to go to bed a little wiser than when they woke up. This abridged edition features a new foreword by Stripe cofounder and president John Collison.
US economic growth remains on track to slow in the fourth quarter, but today’s revised analysis still supports a “soft landing” outlook that will keep output strong enough sidestep an NBER-defined recession.
* Biden set to veto anti-electric-vehicle bill
* Crude oil prices on track for seventh straight weekly decline
* 2023 is least affordable year for homebuying on record–2024 may be better
* Apple plans to make 1/4 of iPhones in India within several years
* Google rolls out first phase of Gemini, its AI project
* US jobless claims edge up, but remain low by historical standards:
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