Soon we will enter that awkward period in which we try to remember to write the new year in dates. For me, this lasts roughly from January 1st to sometime in June. But that’s just sneak-peeking at next year, while we’re supposed to be looking at last week. In case you missed it, stock prices were up all week, and bond prices slid every-so-slightly, pushing yields a little bit higher.
What else happened? Tryptophan naps! We hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and are now frantically shopping, as is the American way. No wait. No, yes, please shop – you’re driving the economy!
There wasn’t a lot of news last week, since markets were closed for one and one-half days, and lots of people were on vacation for more than that. But we are watching the Federal Reserve, which will meet next week and announce its latest interest-rate decision. So far, five Fed governors have hinted at a reluctance to cut rates, while four governors have said they support rate-cutting. Three are in the middle, including Chairman Jerome Powell. Cliffhanger.
Despite ongoing weakness in the jobs market, sales on Black Friday (excluding automobiles) rose 4.1% over the prior year, beating 2024’s 3.4% increase. Teens and 20-somethings were the biggest spenders.
We have often talked about the stagnating housing market, but now we see a little light for the buyer’s side. 57% of homes that sold in 2024 through October had at least one price cut. Between 2020 and 2024, that figure was around 47%. I guess this means that people who have been putting off selling are now realizing that the prices they might have gotten during the pandemic or immediately afterward are gone for now. A bird in the hand, people!
And in a related story, Corporations now own 9% of residential land in the U.S. According to USA Today, “data from real estate analytics firm Cotality ‘suggests that investors made nearly one-third of the country’s single-family home purchases in the first half of 2025— buying roughly 85,000 properties a month.’” A significant percentage of these homes would normally be bought by first-time buyers, adding to the difficulties buyers are having finding the right properties. Additionally, corporate buyers are less flexible and less understanding of tenants who run into difficulties.
Tired of betting on sports and want to bet on the color of the president’s tie tomorrow instead? You need Kashi, a betting platform that allows you to place a bet (by buying an option contract) on just about everything. Kashi means “everything” in Arabic, and the company, worth a reported $11 billion, is currently regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It operates in all 50 states, although some states which don’t allow sports betting to have sent cease-and-desist letters to Kashi. The company takes a transaction fee on each contract sold and invites you to gamble on which song will be number one next week, and what Central Park’s high temperature of the day will be.
For the holiday-shortened week ending on Friday, November 28th, the Standard & Poor’s closed at 6,849, the Nasdaq Composite Index at 23,365, and the Dow Jones Industrials at 47,716. The yield on the ten-year Treasury Note finished at 4.017%. U.S. crude oil cost $58.99 per barrel, N.Y. gold cost 4,270.60 per ounce, and one Euro was worth $1.16.
Elizabeth E. Cook
Partner, Diastole Wealth Management
News and information presented here was gathered from sources believed, but not guaranteed, to be reliable, including (but not limited to) Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, Bloomberg, Axios, The Washington Post, The Hustle, The AP, NBC News, Business Insider, Morning Brew, The Economist, and Reuters. If you have questions, please call Diastole at 203.458.5220, or email me at ecook@dwinvest.com.
Remember evolution? Well, about ten million years ago, our African ape ancestors experienced a digestive-enzyme mutation which allowed them to metabolize alcohol 40-times more efficiently than other primates. And the party was born. Humans do not have to forage for fermented fruit to feed our delight with wine; we just forage at the wine shop. Some anthropologists are even suggesting that early agricultural species planted grains, not to make bread, but to make beer. (Wall Street Journal)