GOOD WEEK

Manchester United (MANU 12.82%) football club soared, Manchester United announced that it will explore its strategic alternatives to enhance the club's growth.  There aren't a whole lot of publicly traded sports teams available for investors to buy. In addition to Manchester United, the easiest to own are probably baseball franchises like the Toronto Blue Jays, owned by Rogers Communications, or the Atlanta Braves, part of The Liberty Braves Group, or for basketball and hockey fans, the New York Knicks and Rangers, respectively, both owned by Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

Nu Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NU) up 0.23% backed by Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway, Nu went public at a huge roughly $41 billion valuation and is trading down this year.  But Nu continues to post incredible growth. At the end of the third quarter, it had an astounding 70 million-plus customers and currently banks roughly 39% of the Brazilian adult population.  It is doing this with an industry-leading customer acquisition.  The company found a great product market fit by offering customers low-fee banking products wrapped in a sleek digital experience. Millions of customers have opened their first bank accounts or gotten their first credit cards from the company.  Nu will likely benefit if interest rate hikes level off and there isn't a severe global recession next year.

BAD WEEK

Tesla (TSLA) -0.19% will be running fixes on around 80,000 vehicles in China to deal with possible battery and seat-belt related issues, the country's market regulator announced Friday. Tesla stock edged lower, the EV giant will run wireless software updates on 67,698 imported Model S and Model X Tesla vehicles produced between Sept. 25, 2013, and Nov. 21, 2020. The battery issue could lead the vehicles to stop unexpectedly.

Amazon (AMZN -0.77%) shares reached an all-time high, amid the COVID-19 pandemic when home-bound consumers flocked to the e-commerce giant for necessities.  The company's stock has since fallen, suffering from a stock market sell-off in. Amazon has been hit particularly hard as rises in inflation have led to reduced consumer spending.   With a majority market share in e-commerce and cloud computing, an investment in Amazon seems like a no-brainer. However, as the likelihood of a recession in 2023 rises and Amazon's cloud computing business experiences slowing growth, other stocks are looking more attractive.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?

Black Friday and holiday discounts at big retailers will likely be the deepest ever, according to the National Retail Federation, which anticipates 8 million more shoppers this weekend than last year.

Target (TGT), Macy's (M) and Best Buy (BBY) have warned they need to offer deeper discounts to offset inflated prices on holiday items.

China's resurgent Covid cases are leading to further clamp downs. Daily infections surged to a record high, even as China's zero-Covid policy tightened to battle mounting cases.

Crypto exchange Binance is adding another $1 billion to its initial $1 billion recovery fund to prevent "further contagion effects" after the FTX collapse. The fund will support entities that "through no fault of their own, are facing significant short-term financial difficulties."

Bybit, another crypto exchange, has followed with a $100 million fund for institutional clients.

GET IN ON THE ACTION

If you are interested in opening a trading account with CSB, enquire with one of our friendly Banking officers or get started online by setting up an account today.