Transcript:
Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
Stocks ended Monday’s session close to where they began. New data show Americans are feeling less confident in December. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index surprisingly dropped for the first time in three months. According to the survey, the positive euphoria over an incoming Trump Administration is wearing off.
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In other news, On the 12th day of Christmas true lovers everywhere received – a higher bill. That’s right, the items in the holiday favorite: “12 Days of Christmas,” are collectively up 5.4 percent in 2024. The annual holiday price list compiled by PNC Bank is based on figures from the government’s Consumer Price Index, which by the way was only up 2.7 percent in November.
Mimicking the real world, prices for services are running hotter than things you can touch. Thanks to the rising cost of human labor, 10 Lords-a-Leaping are the most expensive at $15,579.65 per leaping lord. The biggest price jump, however, are for the 11 Pipers Piping and 12 Drummers Drumming; both are up 15.8 percent from a year ago, per musician.
The next biggest price jump comes from Six Geese-a-laying, you can blame bird flu for that. Price tags jumped 15.4 percent to $900 per bird.
Inflation isn’t flying away with every bird. The price for 7 Swans-A-Swimming held steady but it remained the second most expensive gift on the list. Each swan will set you back $13,125.00. Who knew swans were so expensive? As for the other gifts that didn’t see inflation this year: 8 milking maids, 4 calling birds, two turtle doves, and oh yeah – that partridge is the same price. But forget about that pear tree. Its price jumped 17.1 percent to $350.
According to PNC, the so-called true cost of buying all the gifts in the song would cost more than $209,000 if you bought them in store and nearly $247,000 online when you throw in shipping costs.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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