Blame Eggs For Rise in Wholesale Inflation

• Prices for chicken eggs jumped more than 54%, significantly contributing to a 0.7% increase of the overall price of goods when compared with the prior month. 

• Egg prices soared in recent months partly due to a strain of avian influenza, or bird flu, that hit the nation's commercial poultry flocks. Inflation at the wholesale level can carry over to consumer prices.

• November wholesale inflation data showed an unexpected increase. Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 0.4% compared to the prior month.

• The spike in prices of final goods was attributable to a more-than 54% jump in the price of eggs as disruptions from bird flu pushed food prices higher.

• Overall, economists didn’t see enough evidence in the PPI report to keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates at its upcoming December meeting.

Trump’s Tax Plan Are Uncertain For 2025

There’s tax uncertainty heading into 2025 as Congress prepares to negotiate President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

But there could be lessons for investors from his signature tax overhaul in 2017, financial experts say.  

During his campaign, Trump vowed to fully extend the trillions in tax breaks he enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, in 2017, which brought sweeping changes for individuals and businesses.  

He also called for new policies, like no tax on tips, ending taxes on Social Security benefits for older adults and eliminating the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, among others.  

Nasdaq 100 up, S&P 500 down on the week

The S&P 500 was virtually flat Friday while the Nasdaq rose 0.8% and the Russell 2000 retreated 0.6%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the only one of those major indexes to have a positive week.

Once again, more constituents in the S&P 500 fell than rose, extending that streak to 10 days, the longest since September 2001.

Tech, consumer discretionary, and utilities were the only S&P 500 sector ETFs to finish positive.

Broadcom AVGO $225.15 (24.52%) spiked on a solid earnings report that showed massive growth in its AI business, but that strength was also bad news for Nvidia NVDA $133.91 (-2.27%).

Tesla TSLA $435.98 (4.33%) caught a bid amid hopes for less stringent rules surrounding self-driving vehicles under the incoming Trump administration.

Communications services led the way down, with Meta META $620.58 (-1.66%) and Alphabet GOOGL $189.99 (-1.12%) each off more than 1%.

• Klarna CEO talks how AI has helped the Buy Now Pay Later platform reach profitability.

• The long-shot plan to save TikTok from a US ban.

• Why it’s gotten more difficult to get a free first-class upgrade.

• Ozempic could be linked to a common cause of sudden blindness, study finds.

A cloud weighs around a million tonnes.