Good morning.

“Buy, buy, Miss American Pie” … seems to be the song consumers continue to sing as moods appear to be brightening and … well … there are things to buy and so many wonderful ever-improving ways to make quick impulse purchases.

When you think about it, it is pretty amazing that here we are at around 11 o’clock in the morning … and I can buy a “Black Friday special” Breville Espresso Machine … and have it delivered to me by 6 PM … in plenty of time for tomorrow’s meal.

Truth be told … I know this … because I just bought one.

Investors also already seem to be starting to celebrate the holiday, as trading is slowing, and major indexes are little changed … but there is still Fed news to report today as one inflation item … which many point out as the “Fed’s preferred inflation gauge” … came in exactly as expected, giving some comfort to those worried that the inflation monster will rise again.

The rest of the week should be a bit light on economic news … or at least major reaction to economic news … but you can be sure things will pick up again next week as investors celebrate what might be considered as the comeback story of the year … U.S. equities … while worries begin anew over what next year will bring us.

And yes, we are about to have forecast after forecast for 2025 … even though most of them (if history is any guide) will end the year as being ridiculously wrong.

On a final note … and the last one included below … is an interesting story of how the American mall must re-invent itself or face complete obsolescence … as has happened in many communities.  And some are making what promises to be a successful adjustment.

No more will we have cookie-cutter shopping centers … where it is difficult to see the difference in these monstrous (now nearly empty) shopping meccas.

Nope.  They will be very different from each other and will completely destroy the old phrase:

“… if you’ve seen one … you’ve seen a mall.”

Have a great day and a terrific holiday ahead,

Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA

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