What we’re reading (11/27)
“Investors See Interest-Rate Cuts Coming Soon, Recession Or Not” (Wall Street Journal). “Wall Street is gearing up for rate cuts. Twenty months after the Federal Reserve began a historic campaign against inflation, investors now believe there is a much greater chance that the central bank will cut rates in just four months than raise them again in the foreseeable future. Interest-rate futures indicated Monday a 52% chance the Fed will lower rates by at least a quarter-of-a-percentage point by its May 2024 policy meeting, up from 29% at the end of October, according to CME Group data. The same data pointed to four cuts by the end of the year.”
“E-Commerce Stocks Rally After Black Friday Shoppers Spend Record Online” (CNBC). “Black Friday online spending reached a record $9.8 billion in the U.S., up 7.5% from a year earlier, according to Adobe Analytics. Online sales on Cyber Weekend, the days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, surged 7.7% to $10.3 billion. Cyber Monday sales are expected to reach up to $12.4 billion, making it the biggest U.S. online shopping day of the year, according to Adobe.”
“Deutsche Bank Makes The Highest S&P 500 Forecast On Wall Street — And Says That May Be Too Conservative” (Morningstar). “A team led by Bankim Chadha, the chief U.S. equity & global strategist, said the S&P 500 SPX has seen solid earnings this year, but ‘perceptions’ remain lackluster, due to still low year-over-year earnings per share (EPS) growth and corporate uncertainty over the macroeconomic outlook. They say that could change in the fourth quarter when year-over-year earnings growth is expected to near 10%.”
“How This First-Time Founder Became A Chicken Tender Billionaire” (Inc.). “When Todd Graves first pitched the idea for Raising Cane's as a college student back in 1994, his Louisiana State University professor hated the concept. A fast-food restaurant that sold only chicken fingers went completely against industry norms. At that time, the sector was focused on adding more variety and healthy items to menus. The professor told Graves that he had not done enough research and gave his hypothetical business plan the lowest grade in the class, a B-. In reality, however, Graves had done plenty of research. ‘I'd basically written the Bible on a chicken finger restaurant. I even knew what our aprons would cost,’ recalls Graves, who spoke to Inc.”
“How Whitney Wolfe Herd’s Fateful Deal With A Russian Mogul Deprived Early Bumble Employees Of A Stock Windfall When She Became A Billionaire” (Business Insider). “For early Bumble employees…the company's unorthodox approach to equity, including selective use of an obscure form of compensation referred to internally as ‘shadow equity,’ remains a perplexing and bitter memory that is difficult to reconcile with Bumble's positive accomplishments and oft-repeated maxim — ‘Bee Kind.’”
