🦢Black Swan Street Weekly Stock Market Summary (Dec. 25th - Dec. 29th 2023)

Welcome to Black Swan Street!

Apple's $17 billion ban, global dealmaking activity hits lowest level since 2013, delinquency rates surpass 2008 levels, Harvard vs President Gay, Amazon Prime Video says yes to ads...

Let’s get into this week:

• Apple Faces $17 Billion Ban⌚️

• Global Dealmaking Slows📉

• Delinquency Rates Surpass 2008📈

• Headline Roundup🗞

• Next Week In The Stock Market🔮

Read time: 5 minutes

Apple Faces $17 Billion Ban⌚️

What’s the deal with Apple Watches? On December 26th, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) imposed an import ban on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2.

This comes as a result of the ITC ruling that Apple had infringed on two patents from medical device maker ‘Masimo’.

What now? The Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 were made available once again after a federal appeals court paused a sales and import ban that covered both devices.

The appeals court said Apple could continue selling its watches for the time being, while the company waited to hear back on whether proposed changes to its watches would avoid the previous patent issues.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is scheduled to rule on the changes on January 12th.

Why is this important? Simple... Money. Apple Watches generates roughly $17 billion a year for Apple and is a major product line for the company.

Global Dealmaking Slows📉

What is global dealmaking? Global dealmaking mostly focuses on mergers and acquisitions.

Global dealmaking activity has fallen to below $3 trillion, the lowest levels since 2013.

The last time the value of deals fell by 10% or more for two consecutive years, was 2008 & 2009 - not good.

This highlights the uncertainty within the markets from investors and bankers around the world.

Delinquency Rates Surpass 2008📈

What are delinquency rates? The delinquency rate refers to the percentage of loans within a financial institutions portfolio whose payments are delinquent, or past due.

Just the facts: Delinquency rates on credit card debt at small banks just hit 7.5%, 200 basis points higher than in 2008.

Since the Fed started hiking interest rates, delinquency rates have more than doubled at both small and large banks.

Headline Roundup🗞

• NY Times sues OpenAI & Microsoft for infringing copyrighted works - YF

• Samsung delays production at new U.S. factory to 2025 - BBG

• China hit by worst earthquake since 2014, inflicts $75 million loss on hardest-hit region - BBG

• Synopsys, maker of software used in chip design, submits $30 billion offer to acquire engineering software vendor ‘Ansys’ - MB

• Bristol Myers to buy schizophrenia drugmaker ‘Karuna Therapeutics’ for $14 billion - CNBC

• Expect electric vehicles to get cheaper in 2024 - CNBC

• Intel to invest $25 billion in Israel after winning incentives - BBG

• GM sues San Francisco, seeking $121 million in back taxes, penalties - RT

• Goldman, Morgan Stanley expect China’s housing slump to worsen - BBG

• Softbank will receive ~$7.6 billion worth of ‘T-Mobile’ stock for no additional cost as part of an agreement struck when the wireless carrier merged with rival ‘Sprint’ - BBG

• Google settles $5 billion consumer privacy lawsuit - RT

• Maine becomes second state to bar Trump from 2024 primary ballot - WSJ

Next Week in the Stock Market🔮

Earnings Calendar Next Week:

What the Swan is watching:

Thursday: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Conagra Brands

Friday: Constellation Brands

Economic Calendar Next Week:

The Swan’s Picks🦢

🎥Amazon Prime Video Says Yes to Ads: Starting February 2024, Amazon is set to introduce advertisements to its Prime Video streaming service. But, there’s a way around it… Pay €2.99 per month to remove them

😮Harvard vs President Gay: Harvard President, Claudine Gay, is receiving plenty of backlash after investigation into allegations of plagiarism. Students are demanding she be fired and held to the same standards of academic integrity as students and other faculty.

💸OpenAI in Talks to Raise at $100B Valuation: According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is in early discussion to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion. This would make OpenAI the second-most valuable U.S. startup behind SpaceX.

🏀NBA Approves Mark Cuban’s Sale: In the past, we covered how Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks. Well, this week the NBA officially approved the deal. The $3.5 billion sale is to the family of Miriam Adelson, the controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands.

The Wrap-Up🔄

It was a slower week cause the of the holidays, but that being said…

Let us know some of your new years resolutions!!!

We’d love to hear!

Reply to this email with your new year’s resolution. We’ll feature some of the ones our team likes the most in next week’s edition of Black Swan Street!!!