ECONOMICS

Microsoft, which is hitting a daily all time high every day now because supposedly everyone will be using some AI version of MS Office (right before they are laid off thanks to, well, AI) and just surpassed a $3 trillion market cap, announced it would lay off 1,900 people across its video-game divisions including at Activision Blizzard (maker of such iconic games as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo), which it purchased for $69 billion in an acquisition that closed late last year, and (more…)

Against expectations of a small rise from 0.03 to 0.06, The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (which draws on 85 economic indicators) tumbled to -0.15 in December. 2023 ends with 8 of the 12 months in negative territory…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, 48 of the 85 inputs made a negative contribution with all major subcategories weaker MoM and only personal consumption barely above zero…

• Production and Income -0.06

• Employment -0.06 (more…)

After November's huge jump (thanks to a surge in non-defense aircraft and parts orders – which we suspect we won't be seeing anytime soon given the shit-show at Boeing), analysts still expected another significant (+1.5% MoM) rise in preliminary December Durable Goods Orders data.

Disappointingly, orders printed unchanged (a notable miss) with November's data revised up to +5.5% MoM. The unchanged MoM in December left 2023's durable goods orders up 3.7% YoY… (more…)