Wealth Management News & Insights
Transportation Stocks Are Hitting Their Stride, JetBlue Unveils First-Ever Airport Lounge, The Oscars Will Be Streamed
Primary Sources
- The Employment Situation – 2025: Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in November (+64,000) and has shown little net change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. In November, the unemployment rate, at 4.6 percent, was little changed from September. [BLS]
- Medline Announces Pricing of Upsized Initial Public Offering: Medline Inc. (“Medline”) announced today the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 216,034,482 shares of its Class A common stock, at a public offering price of $29.00 per share. [Medline]
The chart above shows annual sports rights payments by company for 2026. Disney and Comcast are projected to account for over half of the 2026 annual sports rights payments among US media companies.
Financial Markets
- NY Fed President Williams Says Some ‘Technical Factors’ Distorted November’s CPI Reading Downward: New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Friday that “technical factors” likely distorted November’s inflation data, pushing the headline reading lower than it otherwise would have been. [CNBC]
- Home Sales Rose in November for the Third Consecutive Month: Sales hit their highest level since February, after lower mortgage rates boosted activity. [WSJ]
- Oracle Stock Jumps 8% as Cloud Provider Joins Investor Group to Run TikTok’s U.S. Business: The deal prevents a shutdown of the app in the U.S. over national security concerns. [CNBC]
- Transportation Stocks Are Hitting Their Stride – That’s a Good Sign for Investors: Uncertainty over the labor market and tariffs will put the Dow Theory to the test in 2026. [WSJ]
Financial Planning
- How to Get the Most Out of Your Gift Cards: If you’re left with a small balance, in some states you can ask for the change. [WSJ]
- How Early Decision at Colleges Is (and Is Not) About Your Money: Early decision isn’t just for the rich, as long as people with lower incomes can get accurate price quotes before agreeing to attend if they get in. [NYT]
Business Strategy
- Data Center Deals Hit Record $61 Billion in 2025 Amid Construction Frenzy: Global data centers dealmaking surged to hit another record high this year, driven by a rush to build out the infrastructure required for energy-intensive AI workloads. [CNBC]
- Disney’s Risky Acceptance of AI Videos: Disney will let fans run wild with AI-generated videos of its top characters. The move highlights the uneasy partnership between AI companies and Hollywood. [Kiplinger]
- JetBlue Unveils First-Ever Airport Lounge, BlueHouse – Here’s What’s Inside: The carrier joins the ranks of larger airlines and credit card companies who are chasing customers willing to pay up to travel. [CNBC]
- Nike’s Struggles Continue, but Turnaround Plan May Be Working: Quarterly sales rose slightly for the world’s largest footwear company despite weak results in China and with its Converse brand. [NYT]
- PayPal Applies to Establish Bank: The payments company says it filed applications with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the FDIC to establish PayPal Bank. [WSJ]
- WBD Tells Shareholders Netflix Deal is Superior to Paramount Offer: The Warner Bros. Discovery board on Wednesday said it unanimously recommended that WBD shareholders reject a takeover offer from Paramount Skydance and stick with a “superior” proposal from Netflix. [CNBC]
- Sam Altman Says He’s ‘0%’ Excited To Be CEO of a Public Company as OpenAI Drops Hints About an IPO: OpenAI may be building up to one of the largest initial public offerings ever, but CEO Sam Altman says he is not necessarily looking forward to helming a public company. [Fortune]
Life & Work
- Spotify Wrapped ‘Listening Age’ Feature Has Music Fans Howling: Millennials’ love of Fleetwood Mac puts them in retirement age, according to the latest Spotify Wrapped. [WSJ]
- Chicago’s Top Rents Shoot Through the Roof — And Keep Going: Demand for apartments of all types exceeds supply, while the luxury market reaches prices never before seen in Chicago. [Crain’s Chicago]
- How the ‘Wicked’ Movies Turbocharged a Broadway Juggernaut: The musical was already one of theater’s biggest success stories. Then came Hollywood. [NYT]
- The Oscars Will Be Streamed: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it had reached a deal with YouTube for exclusive rights to the show starting in 2029. [NYT]
The chart above shows the average 4-day Walt Disney World daily ticket prices between 2019 and 2026. The 4-day WDW daily pricing is projected to be up 48% above 2019 prices in 2026.