The Rundown - Australia Bans Social Media for Kids Under 16, Meta to Build Subsea Cable Network

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Stock market update for November 29, 2024.

Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zedadmani, and today is Friday, November 29th. In today's episode, we recap the latest inflation data and tell you what it might mean for future rate cuts. We also discuss a new Australian law banning social media for teens and take a peek at early holiday shopping sims. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how much beer the U.S. imports from Mexico and the impact at potential tariffs could have on the industry. All right, let's go. Markets entered Thanksgiving Day on a down note. Both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ were in the red on Wednesday, thanks to a sell-off in big tech stocks. Could just be that investors are taking

some profit as they gear up for Black Friday shopping. It's hard to blame them. Now, we did get an inflation report on Wednesday. The October PCE inflation report came out, which is the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, and it came in at 2.3%. Now, this number was expected. but it's still above the Fed's 2% target, and it's also higher than the 2.1% that was measured in September. So it looks like inflation is being annoyingly sticky in this 2 to 2.5% range, and I wonder if that's going to impact the Fed's decision to cut rates at the December meeting. Right now, the market, they're still expecting a 66% chance of a 25 basis point cut at the December 18th meeting, but we'll have to see. Now, a lot of people are off today, but the stock market will be open.

The markets will close three hours early, though, at 1 p.m. Eastern. So don't expect a lot of volume today. Also, because I'm sure a lot of people are still recovering from a food coma from yesterday. Like, I might need to go buy some tums because I'm struggling right now. But I will be keeping one eye on the stock market today because today is the last trading day of the week and the last trading day of the month of November. Stocks are currently on track to finish the week on a high note. And if we get a mini rally today, November might end up being the best performing month of the year.

So I'll keep one eye on the stock market while I go Black Friday shopping. And I'll let you guys know the official November stats on Monday. Monday show, so make sure you guys tune in for that. Oh, and real quick, Bitcoin back above $97,000 after dipping to below $91,000 earlier in the week. So shout out to all the crypto bros out there that talk to their uncles and cousins and aunts to buy the Bitcoin dip. 100K watch is back on. Let's run through some headlines. Australia has banned social media for teenagers under the age of 16. The country Senate passed the bill late on Thursday, and this new law puts the responsibility on the platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat, to take reasonable steps to restrict

anyone underage to make an account. And if these platforms failed to do that, they could get fines as steep as $32 million. This is an interesting law, and I think in theory it is a good idea, but I'm just not sure how it's going to be enforced properly. For one, users aren't required to upload any sort of government ID to prove that they're the proper age to make an account. And look, teens are sneaky, man. They're going to find a way around by, lying about their age or whatever. I don't know how effective this law is going to be. On top of that, there's not going to be any consequences for the children or parents involved if the kids end up lying about their age to make an account. So I don't know. Now, the platforms

this law applies to include Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and X. But YouTube is actually exempt from this law along with messaging apps like WhatsApp. You know, WhatsApp and messaging apps being exempt, I understand. YouTube being exempt is kind of funny. The lawmakers say that YouTube is exempt because of its educational content. Okay, I mean, I love YouTube, and they have some great educational content, but so does every platform that is being restricted here. And YouTube's algorithm rabbit hole

can be just as wild as Instagram or TikTok, all right? Anyone that's gone down a 2 a M rabbit hole on YouTube knows exactly what I'm talking about. It can get pretty crazy. So I wonder how this all plays out. I wonder if more countries are going to pass similar laws. Again, I think this is good in theory trying to protect kids,

but we'll see how it plays out in reality. Investors don't seem to be super worried, though, the companies that are being impacted by this law, like Snapchat and Meta, their shares aren't moving in any significant way. In fact, both of their stock prices are up today. Speaking of Meta, they got some big plans coming up. They're planning to build a subsea cable spanning the world. And this investment could cost the company like $10 billion, according to TechCrunch. Now, this sounds like a random side project for Meta. I'll explain why it's not. See,

these fiber-octed cables are the backbone of the Internet's infrastructure. They carry the majority of the internet's traffic. And meta is the second largest driver of internet usage globally, trailing only Google. Now, these existing undersea cables are owned by a ton of companies, meta having partial ownership. But this new undersea cable will be fully owned by meta. Now, this is going to take years to build out, but the company expects to start sharing more details publicly sometime next year, according to this report.

So if you were frustrated with how slow your Instagram stories would upload, maybe this will fix that. Also, kind of crazy to think that the entire internet relies on. on these fiber optic cables that are sitting on the ocean floor. That kind of blows my mind. You know what else is blowing my mind? It's some of this early holiday shopping data. It seems like a lot of you guys, myself included,

were doing some online shopping during Thanksgiving yesterday. U.S. online shopping sales were up 4% on Thanksgiving Day. Look, I was one of those people. I bought an Apple Watch while I was waiting for dinner to be cooked. Now, it's expected to be a pretty busy Black Friday. Nearly 86 million shoppers are expected to visit stores this year. That's up from 76 million on Black Friday from last year. But overall,

Shopping is expected to slow down. Holiday sales this year are expected to grow by three and a half percent, which would be the slowest pace in six years, according to the National Retail Federation. It'll be the third straight year of decelerating growth. That was kind of surprising. I thought that we might see an acceleration this year. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of a little-known drone maker, unusual machines are flying this morning after Donald Trump Jr. joined the company's advisory board. Investors seem to be pumped that the president-elect's eldest son is getting involved with the company and shares of unusual machines jumped 85% on Wednesday when this news was announced and it's up by another 35% this morning.

Unusual machines is a U.S.-based drone maker and they could potentially see a big boost in their business if there ever are any restrictions put on drones coming from China. There's been talks about those restrictions going in place for a while now. It hasn't happened yet, but it could. And the most well-known drone company in the world is DJI, which is a Chinese company. And I'm not going to lie, when I had a drone phase a few years ago, I only don't. a couple of DGI drones, they were pretty great. So if there's ever any restrictions on DGI drones,

a U.S.-based drone maker could fill that void. And that's why investors seem to be bullish on unusual machines. Now, on the flip side, the biggest loser in the S&P 500 today is Super Micro. I know we're all kind of tired of talking about this company, but it's had an extremely volatile month. Shares of Super Micro have moved 10% or more in either direction in 10 of the last 19 trading days in November as they try to fight to not be delisted from the NASDAQ.

This is according to Barron's. This stock has been more volatile in crypto. It's insane. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. 83% of beer imported in the U.S. is from Mexico. A big reason for that is because Corona and Modelo, which are owned by Constellation brands,

they come from Mexico. Corona and Modelo have become more and more popular in the U.S. Some of that might have to do with the fact that Corona has the best commercials, and Modelo actually became the best-selling beer in the U.S. last summer. Dethroning Bud Light after a... 20-year run at the top spot. And this trend has been building over the past decade plus. Like from

2013 to 2022, the U.S. double the amount of beer it imports from Mexico. That also makes Mexico dependent on the U.S. because it ships way more beer to the U.S. than any other country. So if Trump follows through with his tariff threat against Mexico, I wonder if that's going to shake things up a bit. We're actually going to talk more about Trump's tariff threats and how it could send shockwaves through the economy and the impact that it will have on your wallet and grocery bill on tomorrow's deep dive episode. So if you want to learn more about that, keep an eye on your podcast feed on Saturday morning.

Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Hopefully everyone listening had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully you guys are able to score some good deals on Black Friday today and through the weekend. And remember, if you guys want to learn more about tariffs and the impact it will have on the economy, be sure to check out tomorrow's weekend deep dive.

Thank you guys again for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. This is the rundown, your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security. Run-down guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or its subsidiaries.

You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. Respective professionals. Learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Zayidmani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by open to the public investing incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.