Week in Review

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Week in Review

12/28/2024

For the week 12/23-12/27

[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]

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Edition 1,340

It has not been a good Christmas for those who celebrate in Ukraine.  It hasn’t been real good for nearly three years now in the country.  Vladimir Putin is pure evil, millions of Ukrainians have lacked power and heat (and water) for long stretches amidst the Ukrainian winter, while the military is undermanned and not getting the arms it desperately needs at the pace it was promised, you have an incoming U.S. administration that is threatening to cut off aid altogether, and, just as distressingly, Europeans are growing weary of the conflict.

Readiness to support Ukraine “until it wins” has fallen sharply across western Europe at this critical time, polling this month by YouGov shows.

To cite a few countries, when asked what is your preferred resolution for the Ukraine conflict?

Support Ukraine until Russia withdraws, even if this means the war lasts longer...or...

Encourage a negotiated end to fighting, even if Russia still has control of some parts of Ukraine....

In Britain, 36% say support Ukraine until Russia withdraws, while 32% say encourage a negotiated end to fighting.

All the others are the opposite.

Germany: 45% say encourage a negotiated end, while only 28% want to support Ukraine until Russia withdraws.

France: 43% for immediate negotiations, 23% for further military support.

Italy: 55% for negotiations over the 15% who want to support Ukraine further.

So let’s stick with the topic....

....Russia-Ukraine

--Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Monday that North Korea could be planning to send more troops and weapons to aid Russia’s army after more than 3,000 soldiers from the hermit kingdom have been killed and wounded while fighting in Kursk.

“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said, after receiving a report from his top military commander.  “We will have tangible responses to this.”

Zelensky cited a much higher number of casualties – 3,000 – among the North Korean troops than previously reported by South Korea’s Intelligence Service and Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which listed the number at 1,100 with 100 dead.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops among its own fighters battling Ukrainians and Zelensky previously said some Russian soldiers were burning the faces off their dead Korean colleagues.

“Russia is not only involving North Korean soldiers in assaults against Ukrainian positions, but also trying to hide the losses of these people,” Zelensky said.  “The Russians are also trying to literally burn the faces off the killed North Korean soldiers.”

The Wall Street Journal reported: “Recent satellite images show that North Korea is shipping more munitions to Russia and is expanding arms production at home to churn out the weapons Moscow needs to feed its voracious war machine....

“Millions of artillery shells from Pyongyang have allowed Russia to fill an ammunition deficit caused by almost three years of intense fighting.”

North Korea’s missiles now make up nearly a third of Russia’s ballistic missile launches at Ukraine this year, according to Ukrainian officials.

--Russia said five people were killed in a Ukrainian strike in the western Kursk region.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said a Russian strike on Kyiv last weekend had affected the diplomatic missions of various countries.  At least one person was killed and nine others were injured in the strike which damaged a number of buildings in the city.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had launched 65 drones and missile across the country overnight Saturday.

Last Friday, Russian launched a large-scale attack on the city of Kherson, hitting apartment blocks.  At least two were killed, with critical infrastructure also being hit.

--Russia then launched a vicious attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Christmas Day.  President Zelensky said Russia made a “conscious choice” to launch attacks at this time, calling it “inhumane.”

“Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas,” he added.

This is the second time Ukraine has celebrated Christmas Day on December 25th.  It traditionally followed the Julian calendar, like Russia, where Christmas falls on January 7.

Ukraine’s air force says it detected 184 missiles and drones – many were shot down or missed their target.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed what it called a “massive strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones on critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that ensure the operation of the military-industrial complex.”

“The strike’s goal was achieved. All facilities were hit,” it added.

There were largescale power cuts and planned outages across the country, including in Kyiv.

Russian also launched an attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with the mayor saying 74 buildings had been damaged, and 500,000 left without heat.

This was the 13th major attack on Ukraine’s energy sector this year, the country’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said.

Russia also said it downed 59 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions.

Responding to the latest Russian strikes, President Biden said: “The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid.”

Biden also asked the Defense Department to continue delivering weapons to Ukraine.

--Robert Fico, Slovakia’s hard-right prime minister, met Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.  Their meeting comes as supplies of Russian gas via pipelines through Ukraine are set to end on January 1st, when a long-term deal between Russia and Ukraine expires.  Mr. Fico, an ally of Vlad the Impaler, has criticized Ukraine for refusing to renew the agreement. Slovakia still imports lots of Russian gas via Ukraine.

Fico is following in the footsteps of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who visited Putin in July.  Fico broke with the European Union’s policy of isolating Putin by meeting with the Russian president late Sunday.

In a briefing to reporters on Monday, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, praised Fico for his independence.

“Like Orban, Robert Fico has proved himself an independent, thoughtful politician who prioritizes the interests of his country,” Ushakov said.

The two leaders, he added, had agreed on “the importance and even necessity of restoring traditionally mutually beneficial ties between the two countries.”

Like Orban, Fico has denounced European Union sanctions on Russia and the bloc’s military aid to Ukraine, though he has allowed Slovak weapons manufacturers to keep selling to Kyiv.

As to the gas issue, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the country was ready to continue gas exports to Europe through several routes just as a contract to transit the fuel via Ukraine is set to expire.

It is up to authorities in Kyiv and the EU to agree on the future of gas transportation, Novak said Wednesday in an interview with Russian state TV.  “We, in turn, have always stated that we are ready to continue supplying gas not only via the existing link” through Ukraine.

President Zelensky has said his country won’t transit Russian-origin gas unless he has assurances the Kremlin won’t benefit financially while the war continues.

Russia sends gas to Europe through various routes.  Besides Ukraine, the fuel is transported via a leg of the Turk Stream pipeline that crosses the Black Sea.  Supplies are also sent in tankers as LNG.

--A Russian military cargo ship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea this week was the target of a terrorist attack, Russian state news service RIA Novosti reported, citing the owner of the vessel.

The Ursa Major, the biggest cargo ship in the Russian military’s logistics fleet, suffered three explosions on its right side before sinking, according to the company, which is owned by the Russian Defense Ministry.  The ship transports military and civilian goods.

The vessel was lost on Dec. 23, with two crew members reported missing and 14 others rescued.  

--Pokrovsk is Russia’s next major target in eastern Donetsk, troops less than two miles from the city center.  It’s not just buildings and homes that are being destroyed.  Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to erase its cultural identity too – including its associations with a well-known carol.

You see, Pokrovsk is the birthplace of one of the world’s favorite carols, the Carol of the Bells.  The statue of its famous composer, Mykola Leontovych, has already been removed.  The music school that bore his name now lies boarded up and empty.

--Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating reports of beheadings and a sword being used to kill a Ukrainian soldier with his hands tied behind his back amid reports Russia has executed at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war since the start of the full-scale invasion, 127 of them this year.

“The upward trend is very clear, very obvious,” says Yuri Belousov, the head of the War Department at the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office.

“Executions became systemic from November last year and have continued throughout all of this year. Sadly, their number has been particularly on the rise this summer and autumn.  This tells us that they are not isolated cases...there is evidence that instructions to this effect are being issued.”

International humanitarian law – particularly the Third Geneva Convention – offers protection to prisoners of war and executing them is a war crime.

--An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors, a Kazakh official said.

Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev disclosed the figures, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

The Embraer 190 was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus, when it was diverted and attempted an emergency landing 3 kilometers from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

Russia’s civil aviation authority said the preliminary information showed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.

FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming.”  Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

This is an interesting tragedy.  You have many causes given, very early on.  If it was a bird strike, the evidence should be in the wreckage, the engines. 

However, the wreckage seemed to show the jet was hit with antiaircraft fire.  The flight was diverted over an area where Moscow’s air defenses have battled Ukrainian drones in recent weeks, including Wednesday.

A Ukrainian national security official, Andriy Kovalenko, said in an X post that the plane “was shot down by a Russian air-defense system,” citing visible damage to the plane, which is clear on the videos.

“Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny but failed to do so,” Kovalenko said.  “The plane was damaged by the Russians and was sent to Kazakhstan instead of being urgently landed in Grozny to save lives.”

But the fact 29 survived is extraordinary. 

The Kremlin warned against making any immediate judgments about the cause, but some Russian pro-military bloggers have also pointed the finger at the country’s air defenses.

Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday the passenger jet experienced “physical and technical external interference,” according to an early investigation.

--Meanwhile, Finnish authorities seized an oil tanker Thursday on the suspicion that it was involved in cutting vital undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.  They said the ship might have been part of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” aimed at evading Western sanctions.

--Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Donald Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine, and who doesn’t?  Apparently Vladimir Putin, who used his annual end-of-year news conference last week to send the President-elect a message about his peace terms.

“ ‘Now, regarding the conditions for starting negotiations: We have no preconditions,’ Mr. Putin said before outlining sweeping precondition.  Talks would be ‘based on’ 2022 negotiations in Istanbul and ‘proceeding from the current realities on the ground,’ he said.

“Russia’s 2022 Istanbul proposal called for Ukraine to abandon aspirations to join NATO, become a permanently neutral state, and drastically shrink its armed forces.  This would ratify Russia’s territorial gains and render Ukraine defenseless against inevitable future Russian aggression.

“When the Kremlin floated that plan, Russian troops were in Bucha and Irpin – about as close to the center of Kyiv as JFK airport is to midtown Manhattan.  Ukraine has since driven the Russians out of Kyiv and the regions of Kherson and Kharkiv, broken Russia’s Black Sea naval blockade, and taken the fight to Russian territory in the Kursk region.  But Russia is making gains in Ukraine’s east with the help of China’s technology and North Korean manpower and artillery, albeit at the cost of enormous casualties.

“Mr. Putin also referred to his speech last June when he demanded that the West drop all sanctions on Russia and that Ukraine withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

“Asked if he could return to February 2022, the Russian dictator expressed no regrets about his invasion but said ‘the decision that was made at the beginning of 2022 should have been made earlier.’ That could have been during Mr. Trump’s first term in office.

“Mr. Putin said he’s ‘ready to talk any time’ with Mr. Trump, and some will dismiss his tough talk as merely the opening bid in what will be an inevitable deal. But it’s a mistake to think the Kremlin boss has given up his designs to turn Ukraine into a vassal state like Belarus.  Letting Russia prevail in Ukraine on anything close to Mr. Putin’s terms would send a message of appeasement that would surely mean a larger war in the future.  Mr. Trump can’t let Ukraine become his Afghanistan.”

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Syria

--Syria’s new leadership is off to a respectable start in uniting some of the rebel factions, who have agreed to dissolve themselves, Sana, the Syrian state-run news service, reported on Tuesday.

The rebel groups agreed to be integrated under the defense ministry, with pictures posted on social media showing Ahmad al-Shara (formerly al-Jawlani), the rebel who led the offensive that overthrew the Assad dictatorship, meeting on Tuesday with dozens of rebels.

At a news conference on Sunday, al-Shara said the “logic of a state is different from the logic of a revolution.”

“We absolutely will not allow for weapons outside the framework of the state,” he said. 

A separate Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), did not appear to be part of the deal. U.S.-backed SDF has been battling Islamic State for years inside Syria, but, as you all know by now, Turkey is hostile to the Kurdish force.

--Protests broke out over Syria over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting calls for the new Islamist leadership to take steps to protect minorities.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), al-Shara’s faction, said foreign fighters had been detained over the incident.  HTS has promised to protect the rights and freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.

The tree burning occurred in the main square of Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in central Syria.  Videos of the aftermath showed a religious figure from HTS assuring crowds who had gathered in Suqaylabiyah that the tree would be repaired before the morning.  The man then held up a cross in a show of solidarity, something Islamist conservatives would not normally do.

But protesters took to the streets, including in parts of Damascus.

Syria is home to many ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of whom make up a majority of the Muslim population.

--And then Wednesday, forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad killed 14 police members and wounded 10 others in what was described as an ambush, according to the caretaker government, as the country experiences its worst violence since Assad’s toppling.

Several deadly incidents in recent days underscore the fragile security situation in Syria.

Protests broke out earlier in the day when members of the Alawite minority group, from which Assad hails, took to the streets of Tartus, Homs, Latakia and Jableh. They were angered by a video showing an Alawite shrine in Aleppo being set alight.

The interior ministry said the incident took place in the dying days of Assad’s rule, when unknown groups stormed and violated the shrine. The footage was being circulated to stir up sectarian strife, according to the ministry.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that nine civilians were also killed in Raqqa, Hama and Idlib.

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Wall Street and the Economy

When we last left Congress as I posted at 4:30 p.m. ET, a week ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson was looking at Plan C in terms of avoiding a government shutdown.  The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, had helped torpedo Plans A and B with rapid-fire messages that were uninformed and included numerous false claims about the spending bill that Johnson had worked out with Democrats,

But Donald Trump and his transition pushed back against claims that Musk was solely responsible for tanking the spending plan. 

“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump told NBC News last Thursday.  “He’s looking at things from a cost standpoint.

But Musk posted multiple inaccurate claims about the spending bill, writing that the legislation would give members of Congress a 40 percent raise.  The maximum possible raise in 2025 under the legislation would have been 3.8 percent.  Some of Musk’s inaccuracies even drew blowback from members of the GOP.

“I love you Elon but you need to take 5 seconds to check your sources before highlighting bottom feeders looking for clicks,” tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), after Musk responded to a video that claimed Crenshaw was spearheading the effort to raise lawmakers’ salaries.

Musk also amplified a false assertion that the bill included billions for a new D.C. stadium.  The legislation would have permitted D.C. to redevelop RFK Stadium and possibly bring the Washington Commanders back to their former home, but no costs were attached to the provision.  [It later cleared the Senate early Saturday morning by a voice vote, the House having approved it back in February.]

Musk also threatened members of congress who supported the spending bill, writing they would be voted out in two years.  When criticized that he was overstepping and bought political influence (to the tune of $277 million), Musk claimed that he was enforcing the will of the American people.

“The voice of the people was heard,” he wrote after the bill, Plan B, was abandoned.  “This was a good day for America.”

Other Republicans, however, embraced Musk’s influence over the legislative process.

“He’s a member of the public that has a voice, and I think what’s happened is he’s doing what Americans are doing, he’s showing up and learning the process and getting involved,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said.  “And I think it’s great what he’s doing.”

Well, in the end, Friday evening the House passed a stopgap funding bill, extending government funding into March (March 14, 2025) and providing disaster relief (roughly $100 billion) and farm aid, but there was no suspension of the debt limit, which President-elect Trump had called for.

The House vote was 366 to 34, with all of the votes against coming from Republicans.

The Senate then passed the bill by a 85 to 11 margin early Saturday morning.  Musk had publicly backed Plan C, giving it a boost, as well as a boost for embattled Speaker Johnson, who faces a vote on Jan. 3 with some conservatives threatening to unseat him.

“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” Musk said on X.  “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”

But the bill that lawmakers ultimately approved failed to reflect spending restraint, underscoring the limits facing the effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Donald Trump has pledged to preserve entitlement programs, and Republicans are loath to slash military spending (nor should we these days), which leaves little space to scale back the biggest drivers of the debt.

Even as lawmakers talk about spending cuts and deficit reduction, they are preparing an expansion of the 2017 tax cuts that could cost the nation $trillions more over a decade.

As to the economic data for the week, there was little.

November durable goods fell 1.1%, more than expected, but this is a volatile data set, and November new homes sales came in exactly as forecast, 664,000 annualized pace.

Importantly, U.S. retail sales rose 3.8% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, according to a Mastercard report Thursday. 

The jump was higher than a 3.2% forecast rise by Mastercard in September and well above a 3.1% increase from a year earlier, with the last five days of the season accounting for 10% of all holiday spending.

The gains were boosted by restaurant spending, which increased 6.3% in the period compared with last year.  Online retail sales rose 6.7% year-over-year, while in-store sales increased 2.9%.

MastercardSpendingPulse measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment, ex-automotive sales.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer for fourth-quarter growth is at 3.1%.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.85%.

No market moving inflation data next week, but we do get some updates on the state of manufacturing in the U.S.

Europe and Asia

Nothing from the eurozone this week.  We’ll get PMI data for December next week.

Turning to Asia...nothing of note from China, either.

Japan reported on November industrial production, -2.8% year-over-year, but November retail sales rose 2.8% Y/Y.

Street Bytes

--Stocks finished up this holiday-shortened week despite a sloppy Friday. The Dow Jones rose 0.3% to 42992, the S&P 500 was up 0.7%, and Nasdaq added 0.8%.  Two more trading days left in the year.

--U.S. Treasury Bonds

6-mo. 4.29%  2-yr. 4.32%  10-yr. 4.62%  30-yr. 4.81%

The yield on the 10-year rose to its highest level since it peaked at 4.7% in April before plunging a percentage point by September, finishing the week at 4.62%.  All about inflation and deficit concerns with the incoming administration’s policy proposals.

--Honda Motor and Nissan Motor formally signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, beginning talks aimed at deepening a partnership that began earlier this year.  Over the next six months, the companies will discuss combining their operations under a holding company, with a plan to complete the merger in August 2026.

With the plans, Japan’s second- and third-largest automakers would join a growing number of legacy auto giants, including General Motors and Volkswagen, that are deepening ties to share the financial burden of developing next-generation vehicles.  The deal is seen as a lifeline in particular for Nissan, which has been slashing jobs and production amid faltering sales.

With electric vehicle sales growth slowing and President-elect Trump gearing up to eliminate E.V. tax incentives, automakers must figure out how to sustain investments in gasoline and battery-powered cars for an extended period of time, according to automotive consultant Takaki Nakanishi.

“To sustain these dual investments, automakers need scale and the operational efficiencies that come with it,” Mr. Nakanishi said.  “If Nissan and Honda are not able to achieve this, they will not survive,” he said. “Times are truly that tough.”

Nissan sells more than 3 million vehicles a year, while Honda sells nearly 4 million. A merger would position them as the world’s third-largest automaker group, behind Toyota, whose brands sold 11 million vehicles last year, and Volkswagen, which sold 9 million.  Honda and Nisan together employ about 325,000 people.

But can such a combination keep up with the likes of Tesla and China’s BYD, who have already established a commanding lead in electric vehicles and car technologies that can be updated over the air like smartphones.  Nissan and Honda have had to pare back staffing and production in China, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which may also participate in the Honda-Nissan combination, has all but pulled out of the world’s biggest car market.

Honda’s sales in China fell 28% in November versus the same month of 2023, while output slumped 38% year-on-year.

--Nippon Steel’s proposed merger with U.S. Steel has been referred to President Biden after a government panel reviewing the plan failed to reach a consensus.

The Japanese steelmaker said Tuesday that it had been informed of the matter by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews foreign investments in the U.S. for national-security risks.

Nippon Steel said that it is confident that the transaction should be approved if it is fairly evaluated on its merits.

Nippon urged Biden to reflect on the steps the company has taken to address national-security concerns and the significant commitment it has made to grow U.S. Steel and protect American jobs.  The company has pledged to invest $2.7 billion in U.S. Steel’s older plants.

U.S. Steel also noted the CFIUS’s lack of consensus and said the acquisition by the steelmaker, based in one of the U.S.’s closest allies, would enhance U.S. national and economic security and forge an alliance in steel to combat the competitive threat from China.

“It is our hope that President Biden will do the right thing,” U.S. Steel said.

Nippon Steel President Tadashi Imai told reporters on Wednesday: “In the communities of the various regions where the steel mills are located, there is a considerable amount of support for this acquisition. I hope that President Biden will understand...the value of this acquisition to the U.S. economy.”

Nippon shared a letter to Biden dated Dec. 23 and signed by two dozen municipal officials in areas where U.S. Steel mills are located, asking the president to approve the takeover deal.

“We respectfully urge you to listen to the voices of the steelworkers and everyone else whose economic security is tied to U.S. Steel – they are speaking loudly in unison that this deal must be approved,” the letter said.

The White House has previously reiterated the president’s position that U.S. Steel should be domestically owned and operated.

President-elect Trump of course has stupidly done the same.

--American Airlines saw flight delays Christmas Eve but thankfully avoided a deeper meltdown after a vendor technology issue briefly halted its operation Tuesday morning.

American resumed flights after an hour-long ground stop was lifted shortly before 8 a.m. ET. But the setback continued to ripple throughout the day, with about 1,000 mainline American flights – over 40% of its schedule – delayed as of Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Only 13 of American’s mainline flights had been canceled, however.

There was a hardware issue affecting systems operated by DXC Technology, a vendor that maintains American’s flight operating system.  That had an impact on American’s ability to coordinate and dispatch flights.

Otherwise, we had another stowaway on a Delta plane and a body found in the wheel well of a United jet.

--TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2023

12/26...103 percent of 2023 levels
12/25...77
12/24...78
12/23...136
12/22...143
12/21...106
12/20...103
12/19...100

Reporting of the figures around Christmas can be spotty, as you see above.  The 2023 figures for 12/22 and 12/23, for example, were abnormally low.  The comparison for 12/26 seemed to be normal.

--Eli Lilly is surging ahead of Novo Nordisk in the lucrative obesity market.  Novo suffered a setback on CagriSema, a next-generation obesity treatment combining two drugs, which was meant to outshine Lilly’s Zepbound, but the drug fell short of the company’s expectations in a test.  Additionally, Novo Nordisk’s accompanying announcement suggested the drug’s side effects might be hard to tolerate.

Last September, Novo’s experimental obesity pill, monlunabant, failed to meet market expectations.

Further, you have the specter of Medicare drug price negotiations.  Analysts expect that diabetes drug Ozempic, which has the same ingredient as anti-obesity shot Wegovy, could be selected for Medicare drug negotiations next year, with discounts taking effect by 2027.

While Wegovy is already highly discounted after rebates, that could potentially compress profit margins.

Novo stock is down more than 40% from its peak.

Novo’s pain can be Lilly’s gain.  Zepbound, which most seem to believe delivers better efficacy than Wegovy, gives it no near-term challenger.

But...back in October, Lilly disappointed investors with weaker-than-expected sales of its diabetes and anti-obesity drugs.  The company hopes, however, that it has a winner in orforglipron, an anti-obesity pill, when it releases data sometime in 2025.  Unlike injectables, oral medications can be produced faster and more cost-effectively.

--Ford Motor Co. is donating $1 million and a fleet of vehicles to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s January inauguration, a company spokesperson said this week.

Policies on tariffs and electric vehicles that are being considered by the incoming administration would likely affect Detroit carmakers like Ford, who are struggling to ramp up and sell their battery-powered models.

Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters earlier this month he was optimistic that Trump would be open to hearing the U.S. automaker’s perspectives on these actions.

Other large companies, including Amazon and Meta Platforms, have also donated to the upcoming inauguration.

Trump raised a record $106.7 million for his 2017 festivities.

President Biden raised $61.8 million for his 2021 inauguration, with contributions from companies including Pfizer, AT&T and Boeing.

--A Starbucks barista strike that began a week ago Friday shut down about 170 cafes, according to the coffee chain on Christmas Eve.  The union said it expects the number of stores impacted to hit 300.

Over 5,000 workers in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, among other cities, planned to join the work stoppage on Tuesday, according to an emailed statement from Starbucks Workers United.

Baristas were to return to work Wednesday or Thursday, and are ready to resume negotiations, according to the union.

Like I always say when the topic of Starbucks and its many ‘issues’ comes up...just another reason to go to Dunkin’!

--Nordstrom is returning to its private roots after years of earnings struggles and investor indifference.

The founding Nordstrom family, who owned a roughly 33% stake, teamed up with retail investor El Puerto de Liverpool, owner of a 10% stake, to take the company private.  El Puerto is a real estate and department store conglomerate that has boutiques with known names like Gap, Banana Republic, and Williams Sonoma, among others.

The all-cash deal is valued at about $6.25 billion.

The 123-year-old retailer, based in Seattle, Wash., has 381 locations, including 93 Nordstrom and 280 Rack locations, a growing business for the brand.

Each shareholder is receiving $24.25 cash for each share held, which is where the stock was trading before the announcement, though JWN started the year at $17.79.

--The Container Store joined Party City and Big Lots in filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Sunday.  The company said in a press release it is doing this in order to refinance its debt to “bolster its financial position, fuel growth initiatives, and drive enhanced long-term profitability.”

The company reached an agreement with 90% of its term lenders to provide it with $40 million in new money financing.

For the quarter ended Sept. 28, 2024, The Container Store listed total liabilities of $836.4 million against $969 million in total assets.

But if you’re looking for a container and are thinking, “Drat!  Now what do I do?!” ...all 102 stores across 34 states are to operate as usual during the bankruptcy process, though some could close later as part of a reorganization.  “Phew,” said Sophia to her husband, Igor.

However, if Sophia and Igor owned the common stock in TCSG, it’s essentially worthless.

--At the box office last weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” took top honors with a $62 million domestic debut, the second-best December start ever for a PG pic since “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Witch, the Lion and the Wardrobe” almost 20 years ago in 2005, not adjusted for inflation.

Disney, after a string of mega hits this year, stumbled with “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which came in notably below expectations with a domestic debut of $35 million.  But Disney has crossed the $5 billion mark in global ticket sales this year, the first time a studio has done so since before the pandemic, and the sixth time Disney has done so since 2010.

With families otherwise occupied with preparing for Christmas, the weekend before the holiday is traditionally a weak one.

--Netflix scored a hit with Christmas Day NFL games, setting new streaming records, with Chiefs-Steelers averaging 24.1 million viewers, while 24.3 million watched Ravens-Texans, peaking at over 27 million for Beyonce’s halftime show, according to Nielsen.

Netflix also largely avoided the technical issues that hampered the viewing of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, an event that attracted 60 million households.

--Lastly, we note the passing of Richard “Dick” Parsons, one of the leading corporate executives and crisis managers of his generation, who as chairman of Time Warner and Citigroup became a steadying force for media and financial institutions in moments of boardroom and market turbulence.  He died Dec. 26 at his home in Manhattan.  He was 76.

His wife confirmed the death and said the cause was not yet known, but Parsons had multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer.

Parsons was one of the few African Americans in the highest echelons of U.S. business.

“He is someone who can see the big picture of any situation yet grasp the fine point of the details,” R. William Murray, then-chairman of the Philip Morris Cos., once said of Parsons, who served on the food and tobacco conglomerate’s board.

Parsons oversaw Time Warner’s transition from an embattled collection of print, video and audio content assets to a global media conglomerate, including negotiating the nearly $7.5 billion  purchase of Turner Broadcasting System in 1996 to beef up Time Warner’s television operations.

But Parsons had to make peace among the company’s volatile personalities, including Ted Turner and Gerald M. Levin, Parsons’ predecessor and onetime boss.    Both soon left amid squabbling over blame for Time Warner’s much-hyped merger plans in 2000 with online service provider AOL.

AOL acquired Time Warner for $165 billion and created the world’s largest media company.  Parsons voted for the merger, which was at the peak of the internet bubble and then he had to navigate the fallout, as the two corporate cultures clashed, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in lost value.

Parsons then outmaneuvered AOL co-founder Steve Case for the chairmanship and began leading the turnaround.

Parsons left in 2008, and was appointed chairman of Citigroup in 2009, amid the global financial crisis.  He is credited with stabilizing the situation somewhat, though he had joined the board in 1996, and was also seen as part of the leadership that led to the crisis.

Foreign Affairs, Part II

Israel: At least 28 people, including children, died in a wave of Israeli military strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.

A school sheltering displaced families was among the facilities struck, killing eight people including four children over the weekend, the agency said.

It comes as the UN issued a plea for Israel to cease its attacks in the vicinity of a hospital in Gaza’s north.  But the Israeli military (IDF) claims a Hamas command center was inside the compound of the school in Gaza City and has not commented on reports of attacks by the hospital.

“Hamas systematically violates international law,” the IDF said on social media, adding that Israel’s response would be to “act with force and determination against the terrorist organizations.”

Meanwhile, a ceasefire deal, we keep getting told, is “closer than ever.”  At least that was the story until Wednesday, when both sides blamed each other for their failure to finalize an agreement.  Hamas accused Israel of setting new conditions for the withdrawal of its troops.  Benjamin Netanyahu said the militant group was “lying” and backtracking on commitments.

--Five journalists were killed early Thursday when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat area of Gaza, according to local authorities and Palestinian news media reports.

The IDF said its air force had struck a vehicle overnight in Nuseirat with a “terrorist cell” from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad inside.  Reports about journalists being targeted were “fake claims,” Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said on social media.

The media office of Gaza’s Hamas-run government said five journalists from Al Quds Today, a Palestinian television channel, were killed in the strike on their broadcast vehicle.

Reuters published a photo from Nuseirat of a charred white van bearing the word “Press” on its rear doors, with smoke coming out of it.

A New York Times investigation found that the Israeli military issued an order after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that weakened its safeguards meant to protect civilians.  The order gave officers the authority to risk killing up to 20 civilians in strikes targeting Hamas militants.  You’ve seen what followed.

Israeli military leadership said the change was made because they believed the country faced an existential threat.

--In Lebanon, Israel said it wouldn’t permit Hezbollah operatives to return to villages in southern Lebanon and reestablish infrastructure that would pose a threat to Israeli communities, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.

“We struck Hezbollah with unprecedented force, we have defanged the snake, and if Hezbollah doesn’t withdraw beyond the Litani River, and tries to violate the ceasefire – we will crush its head,” said Katz, speaking from an IDF outpost in Lebanon.

China: The White House announced a drawdown of more than $570 million in military-related “defense articles and services” for Taiwan on Saturday.  That’s on top of a nearly $300 million sale of MK 75 76 mm Gun Mounts as well as tactical radios and servicing for Taiwan’s Advanced Tactical Datalink System, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced.

China’s Foreign Ministry denounced the sale and transfers, describing them in a statement Saturday as “a severe breach of the U.S. leaders’ commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence,’” which “sends a gravely wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

“Arming Taiwan is just like playing with fire and will get the U.S. burned,” the Foreign Ministry said, and “urged[d] the U.S. to immediately stop arming Taiwan.”

South Korea: Parliament impeached Acting President Han Duck-soo, dealing another blow to a government already reeling after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s suspension less than two weeks ago for his six-hour martial law decree.

Lawmakers voted 192-0 in favor of Prime Minister Han’s* impeachment on Friday.  A simple majority in the 300-seat parliament was needed for the motion to pass, instead of the two-thirds required to suspend a president.

*Han was prime minister when he took over for Yoon as Acting President.

Dozens of ruling party members protested by chanting slogans for National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik’s decision and to suspend his duties.

The main opposition Democratic Party, which holds 170 seats, filed the motion to impeach Han on Thursday after he resisted pressure to immediately appoint three judges to the Constitutional Court, which would boost the likelihood of a ruling to finalize Yoon’s removal from power.

The crisis has rattled financial markets and disrupted Seoul’s diplomacy efforts with partners like the U.S., all while the country’s facing mounting economic challenges and nuclear threats from North Korea.

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is the new interim leader.  He said he will work to minimize any confusion in government operations.  He also instructed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to increase monitoring of North Korea to prevent any provocations that might arise, he said in a statement.

But Choi is now being asked to manage the roles of finance minister, acting president and acting prime minister simultaneously.

The Court, which can still rule with six judges, has until June to make a decision on Yoon, who has vowed to fight in court, saying he declared martial law to protect the nation from an opposition that’s trying to paralyze the government with impeachment motions and cuts to budget plans.

None of this is particularly good for attracting foreign capital, I think you’d agree, and it could spark an outflow of same.

Iran: The Iran-backed Houthis were targeted by the U.S. military, which carried out airstrikes inside Yemen against a “missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated (by the Houthis” in the capital city of Sana’a, CENTCOM (Central Command) announced last weekend.

The Houthis launched “multiple” aerial drones and at least one anti-ship cruise missile as the U.S. forces carried out their precision airstrikes Saturday, U.S. officials said.

Israeli warplanes then struck multiple targets across Yemen on Thursday, the IDF said, including the country’s largest airport, where the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a flight.

The strikes targeted military infrastructure used by the Houthis.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said the airport was bombarded as he was set to board.  A member of his plane’s crew was injured in the strike.  Tedros said his team would be stranded until the airport could be repaired.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it knew Tedros was at the airport when it launched the strike.

Israel also targeted two power stations, and two ports it alleged were used by the Houthis to smuggle in weapons and officials from Iran.

--Separately, the U.S. Navy rescued aviators downed “in an apparent case of friendly fire” over the Red Sea early Sunday, CENTCOM accounted last weekend.  Both members of the F/A-18F Hornet’s aircrew are safe, one with minor injuries.

“The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman,” CENTCOM said in a statement, adding: “This incident was not the result of hostile fire, and a full investigation is underway.”

--Bloomberg had a disturbing report on how Iran has been recruiting children, as young as 13, to carry out terror attacks in countries such as Sweden, Norway, and Belgium...where there are immigrant-dominated communities, with international criminal gangs taking root, and anger among some groups at the number of civilians killed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.  All of which makes it easier to recruit.

Afghanistan: Pakistani airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan killed 46 people, mostly women and children, according to a Taliban government official.

Pakistani security officials told the Associated Press that Tuesday’s operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika in Afghanistan.

Mozambique: The death toll from post-election unrest has risen to over 260 as of today, according to a local monitoring group, with most of the fatalities caused by police gunfire.

Mozambique (bordered by Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa...your geography quiz for today) has been rocked by waves of demonstrations since electoral authorities in late October declared that the party which has been in power since 1975 had won by a landslide, an outcome the opposition rejected as fraudulent.  Violence intensified after the Constitutional Council on Monday confirmed the ruling party’s victory.

Random Musings

--Presidential approval ratings....

Gallup: New numbers...39% approve of President Biden’s job approval, 56% disapprove; 37% of independents approve (Dec. 2-18)).  The prior split was 37-58, 32.  These are beyond pathetic.

Rasmussen: 46% approve, 52% disapprove (Dec. 27).

--Talk about pathetic, the discovery that longtime Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, 81, who has not cast a vote in Washington, D.C. since July, was found in a nursing home that specializes in memory care.

Granger did not run for reelection in November, but her disappearance from her Dallas-Fort Worth metro area district, has many people not happy, including her constituents.

--The House Ethics Committee released a draft of its report on former Representative Matt Gaetz, President-elect Trump’s former pick for attorney general, and it accused Gaetz of regularly paying for sex, possessing illegal drugs and having sexual relations with an underage girl.

The report found that at least from 2017 to 2020, Mr. Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him”; and, in 2017, “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old,” the draft said.

The Ethics Committee found that from 2017 to 2019, Mr. Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy “on multiple occasions,” and accepted lavish gifts, including transportation to and lodging in the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts.

“Representative Gaetz has acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House,” the draft report stated.

The Ethics Committee concluded that Mr. Gaetz violated state sexual misconduct laws, including Florida’s statutory rape law, and violated House rules concerning gifts and misuse of his official office.

However, the committee said it did not find conclusive evidence that Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.

And the draft report makes clear the committee’s Republican chairman objected to its release.

Gaetz then filed a lawsuit Monday against the House Ethics Committee seeking an emergency temporary restraining order to try and stop the release of the report, arguing it would prompt “immediate and widespread” media coverage.

Gaetz has denied all allegations against him.

Just an amazing lack of judgment on behalf of President-elect Trump in nominating Gaetz in the first place.

--Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President-elect Trump, said she has withdrawn her name from consideration to replace outgoing Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, as she teased a “big announcement” next month.

“After an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many, I have decided to remove my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Lara Trump posted to X.

“I could not have been more honored to serve as RNC co-chair during the most high-stakes election of our lifetime and I’m truly humbled by the unbelievable support shown to me by the people of our country, and here in the great state of Florida.  I have read so many of your kind messages and I cannot thank you enough.”

She added that she has a “big announcement” that she will share in January, while expressing her commitment to public service.

“I remain incredibly passionate about public service and look forward to serving our country again sometime in the future,” she continued.

--President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 prisoners on federal death row to life without parole, taking the unprecedented step ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Trump, whose incoming administration was widely expected to restart executions.

Those he did not spare: Dylann Roof, the white supremacist convicted of killing nine Black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015; Robert Bowers, who carried out the country’s deadliest antisemitic attack when he killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber.

Biden was a longtime advocate for the death penalty, but he ran for the presidency in 2020 as an opponent who pledged to try to end its use.

His administration has taken an inconsistent approach to capital punishment.  The Justice Department halted federal executions during Biden’s presidency while also seeking new death sentences and defending existing ones in court.

Donald Trump, wrote on Christmas Day: “[T]o the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden,” he wrote on Truth Social, “I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!”

--Donald Trump’s latest target: The Panama Canal.  He threatened to take control of the waterway if fees on U.S. ships aren’t lowered, calling the fees charged “ridiculous” and that it should be handed back to America unless the “rip-off” stops.  America, which built the canal in the early 20th century, returned it to Panamanian control in 1999, following a treaty signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977 – a move that Trump called foolish. 

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S.,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.  “This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”

The U.S. is the canal’s biggest customer, responsible for about three quarters of the cargo transiting through each year.  But as I’ve written over the past few years, a prolonged drought has hampered the canal’s ability to move ships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Trump’s call prompted a swift rebuff from Panama’s president, Jose Raul Mulino, who said the shipping tolls aren’t inflated and that its sovereignty is unnegotiable.  Mulino responded that “every square meter” of the canal belongs to his country.  Trump responded: “We’ll see about that!”

President Mulino then rallied support from former presidents in defense of the country’s canal, meeting with three Panamanian leaders on Monday, who all signed a statement asserting the country’s independence and autonomy over the canal.

“As ex-presidents, we support the declarations of President Jose Raul Mulino and we unite under the affirmation that the sovereignty and independence of our country and our canal are not negotiable,” the statement said.

Former administrators of the Panama Canal Authority also rejected Trump’s remarks and said there is no legal mechanism through which the U.S. could take back the canal.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed solidarity with Mulino on Monday.  Mulino said in a post on X he is grateful for the support from world leaders and reiterated “the canal is and will be Panamanian, fostering world trade.”

Trump suggested that the canal was in danger of falling into the wrong hands, saying the canal isn’t China’s to manage. China is its second-biggest customer.  A Chinese company based in Hong Kong controls two of the five ports adjacent to the canal, one on each side.

Trump also hinted he still wants to buy Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark, calling U.S. ownership and control an “absolute necessity” for national security.

In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

Trump has also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st U.S. state and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”

Hours after Trump’s proposed acquisition of Greenland, the Danish government announced a huge boost in defense spending for the territory.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the package was a double digit billion amount” in krone, or at least $1.5 billion.

He described the timing of the announcement as an “irony of fate.”  Poulsen said the package would allow for the purchase of two new inspection ships, two new long-range drones and two extra dog sled teams (you can’t get around in much of the country without the help of the dogs).

It would also include funding for increased staffing at Arctic Command in the capital Nuuk and an upgrade for one of Greenland’s three main civilian airports to handle F-35 supersonic fighter aircraft.

“We have not invested enough in the Arctic for many years, now we are planning a stronger presence,” he said.

Analysts say that the plan has been under discussion for a long time and should not be seen as a direct response to Trump’s comments.

But the truth is, Denmark has been slow to expand its military capacity in Greenland, the same analysts note, and if the country is not able to protect the waters around the territory against encroachments by China and Russia then U.S. demands for greater control are likely to grow.

Meanwhile, if you are a strong, hearty dog, there could be some good career opportunities in Greenland.

--Incoming border czar Tom Homan says the White House will need $86 billion from Congress to kick-start the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation plan – and that’s only the beginning.

Homan told Fox Business on Tuesday that while the president-elect’s deportation plan will be “expensive,” he assured taxpayers it will save them money in the long run.

The former acting ICE director recently said he wants to increase the number of detention beds from the current capacity of several tens of thousands to 100,000.

“We are talking about the biggest national security vulnerability this country has,” Homan added, saying the federal government needs the funding for additional detention beds, deportation flights, other transportation to get illegal migrants out of the U.S. and medical care during the process.

Trump vowed again on Sunday that on day one of his return to the White House, his administration will start “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

--New York City’s police department is in a chaotic state these days.  The top uniformed cop, Jeffrey Maddrey, resigned amid allegations he traded sexual favors with an underling for massive overtime pay, which Mayor Eric Adams, himself under investigation, called “extremely concerning and alarming.”

Then the NYPD’s chief of Internal Affairs, Chief Miguel Iglesias, was forced out in the wake of the allegations against Maddrey, and the NYPD launched a department-wide personnel review.  Iglesias was removed after officials started looking into how the Internal Affairs department handled Maddrey’s case.

New Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a post on X: “Above all else, the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau must always be dedicated to preserving integrity and rooting out corruption in all its forms.  It is an essential function that is crucial to maintaining honor and nobility in the profession and preserving public trust.”

--The mpox virus is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including the city of Kinshasa, a city of 17 million.

Mpox is horrible.  The virus is related to smallpox, and the detection of a new, fast-spreading strain of the virus in a remote mining town in eastern Congo led the World Health Organization to declare mpox a global health emergency in August.  Since then, the spread has only accelerated.

The virus is taking hold in crowded camps home to millions of displaced Congolese, who live crammed into rough shelters with limited access to water.  And then there is immensely crowded Kinshasa.

Ugh.  When you read descriptions of how mpox spreads on the body, it is truly scary.

--And it is sickening watching Luigi Mangione mug for the cameras as he did on Monday in Manhattan in pleading not guilty for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Equally sickening is the group of protesters outside the courthouse chanting “Free Luigi!”

And the reaction of the audience on “Saturday Night Live” when Mangione’s name was brought up on their ‘Weekend Update’ segment.

--The 50-year-old Saudi doctor responsible for the Magdeburg, Germany, Christmas market attack last Friday evening described himself as a former Muslim, who shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.  Taleb A. (last name not released due to German privacy laws) arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.  Authorities have said he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks, but German media reported that before the attack, there had been warnings about the suspect and a potential threat, including from Saudi Arabia.

The country’s vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, voiced fears that the attack will fuel online misinformation ahead of a national election expected in late February.  He urged people to “take time for the truth” and said: “Don’t let yourselves be infected by hatred.”

Last Saturday, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the scene he was heckled by members of the public, some seemingly outraged by what was criticized as a lapse in security.

The death toll remains at five, but scores were critically injured.

--We had our first white Christmas here in my state of New Jersey since 2009, most of the state at least, defined as an inch of snow on the ground.

On average, about 38 percent of the Lower 48 states experience snow on the ground on Christmas Day.

--As Christians around the world celebrated Christmas, Pope Francis called for peace, asking that ceasefires be put in place where wars rage, and that world leaders forgive the debts “that burden the poorest countries.”

In his annual Christmas blessing and message, speaking to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Francis returned to the topic of two military conflicts that have dominated his thoughts – and public remarks – for many months.

In Ukraine, he called for “the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace.”

And he called for “the sound of arms be silenced in the Middle East.”  His thoughts, he said, were with Christians in the Gaza Strip, “where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave” for all who live there.  Francis urged the delivery of aid “to the people worn out by hunger and by war” in Gaza, as well as a cease-fire and the release of the hostages.

What the world needs as much as anything is for God to come down and smite Vladimir Putin.  That’s what I pray for.

--Meanwhile, while Santa made his appointed rounds Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe swooped toward the fiery surface of the sun, traveling closer to the massive star than any human-made object has come. 

Parker is on course to zoom just 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface at about 430,000 mph, cutting through plumes of plasma while circling it on Tuesday morning, the space agency said in a statement.

Contact with the 110-pound spacecraft – the fastest object ever to be built on Earth – was lost during its closest approach, and then mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physic Laboratory in Maryland on Dec. 27 awaited a beacon tone from Parker to confirm its health following the flyby.

And late Thursday, NASA announced Parker successfully completed its approach and remains in good health.  It will take weeks to start receiving data.

The Parker probe was launched in 2018 as part of NASA’s Living With a Star program with the aim of “touching” the sun.  It has circled the sun more than 20 times to explore the outermost layer, the corona.

Studying the corona gives insight into topics including space weather and solar winds, which can interact with Earth’s magnetic field and can damage satellites, knock out power grids and supercharge the northern lights.

In case you were wondering, Parker is protected from the extreme environment by a 4.5-inch carbon-composite shield, allowing it to survive temperatures up to 1,377C (2,500F).

To protect the skin in such an environment would require Aveeno Protect + Hydrate Lotion, SPF 6.95 million.

--The bald eagle is now officially the national bird of the U.S., after President Biden signed a law on Christmas Eve bestowing the honor.

The bird has been a national emblem in the U.S. for years, appearing on the Great Seal of the U.S. – used on U.S. documents – since 1782.

But it had not been officially designated to be the national bird until Congress passed the bill last week, sending it to Biden’s desk to be signed.

“For nearly 250 years, we called the bald eagle the national bird when it wasn’t,” said Jack Davis, co-chair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center, in a statement.  “But now the title is official, and no bird is more deserving.”

--Lastly, 20 years ago this week, Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, triggering a tsunami that hit the region and resulted in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters, killing around 230,000 people across a dozen countries, reaching as far as East Africa.  Some 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly in the worst-affected countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Services were held in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s northernmost province, which was one of those hardest hit, with more than 14,000 unidentified tsunami victims buried in one of the mass graves.

Muhamad Amirudin, who lost two of his children and has never found their bodies, told the Associated Press: “We miss them and we still don’t know where they are. All we know is that every year we visit the mass grave in Ulee Lhue and Siron.

“This life is only temporary, so we do our best to be useful to others,” Amirudin said.

Amen.

---

Pray for the men and women of our armed forces...and all the fallen.

Pray for Ukraine.

God bless America.

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Gold $2632
Oil $70.22

Bitcoin: $94,387 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]

Regular Gas: $3.03; Diesel: $3.50 [$3.12 - $4.01 yr. ago]

Returns for the week 12/23-12/27

Dow Jones  +0.3%  [42992]
S&P 500  +0.7%  [5970]
S&P MidCap  +0.4%
Russell 2000  unch
Nasdaq   +0.8%  [19722]

Returns for the period 1/1/24-12/27/24

Dow Jones  +14.1%
S&P 500  +25.2%
S&P MidCap  +12.8%
Russell 2000  +10.6%
Nasdaq  +31.4%

Bulls 59.0
Bears 16.4...vacation time for the Bull/Bear folks

Happy New Year!  Travel safe.

Next week my yearend review, with a few thoughts on 2025.

Brian Trumbore

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