Getty Images

Year in Rearview

Our favorite charts of 2024

A visual look back on the year.

12/24/24 9:14AM

Well, it was a year. And judging from Sherwood’s many charts, it was an interesting and eventful one. Before we begin 2025, I asked Sherwood writers to choose their favorites. Here are a selection of charts we made this year that are really important, really clever, or just really well liked by us. Some are simple line charts, while others are satellite images or in-depth interactives. All will hopefully make you look smart to your relatives this holiday season.

Forget the Magnificent 7: We coined the BATMMAAN stocks:

Donald Trump won the presidential election — and so did a federal immigration contractor and private-prison company:

Reddit is only the latest social-media company having its day in the sun:

A Short History Of Social Media Hype — Sherwood News

The nation’s electric-vehicle charging goals are a long way off:

The Line Rider tries to stick the Fed’s soft landing:

Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims

Turns out, our food-shopping preferences are very regional:

America’s supermarket mapped social — Sherwood News

It’s tough to be Elon Musk’s neighbor. Look what he did to an adjacent property in Texas:

The insatiable appetite for AI:

Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta spent billions on artificial intelligence.

You were right: Meta’s Threads timeline was totally chaotic. We checked:

Hollywood ran low on new ideas:

How Sweetgreen charged $15 for salad and still lost money:

Jeans didn't go out of style, but the style certainly has changed:

OpenAI is worth... a lot of other companies:

Streaming has changed a lot about music, including the length of songs:

What an investment in Berkshire Hathaway actually includes:

What do you get if you buy $1,000 of Berkshire Hathaway — Sherwood News

Where did all the stocks go? Big tech ate a lot of little tech:

Friends are the new spouses when it comes to buying a home:

The pandemic darlings aren’t looking so hot:

This year you hedged your stocks with stocks, not bonds:

Chinese yields are signaling a depression:

Brent Krott, 15, holds a hand of cards in a game called Magic the Gathering At Crossroad Games in St...

“Magic: The Gathering” is just the tip of a $1 billion digital iceberg

Hasbro’s gaming ambitions are the key to its future success

Charlie Hall10/3/25

Tom Jones

no kudos

10/3/25

Strava is suing Garmin over alleged patent infringements

Has the watchmaker strayed a little far into the fitness app’s lane?

A Garmin smartwatch seen at the shopping mall in Gdansk...

Taco Bell is named the fastest drive-thru for a fifth year, but it may have lost a human touch with AI

Though Chick-fil-A was the slowest fast-food drive-thru, it was considered the friendliest, per the latest QSR report. At the Golden Arches, however, customers weren’t lovin’ the vibe.

Millie Giles10/2/25

Nia Warfield10/1/25

Amazon doubles down on groceries with new private-label collection, sending grocery stocks lower

Amazon on Wednesday launched Amazon Grocery, a new private-label food brand that combines its Fresh and Happy Belly lines into one collection.

The label covers more than 1,000 staples, from milk and eggs to olive oil and fresh meat, with most items priced under $5. Shares of Amazon were little changed, but grocery-selling rivals Target, Walmart, and Kroger all slipped around 2% following the announcement. Costco also slipped about 1%.

The launch highlights Amazon’s growing push into both grocery and private-label essentials as more customers trade down to cut costs. In August, the e-commerce giant added perishable groceries to same-day delivery in 1,000 cities and towns across the country.

At the same time, Amazon said shoppers purchased 15% more private-brand products in 2024 compared to the previous year across Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon Fresh.

Max Knoblauch10/1/25

Ford sales climb for 7th straight month as EVs hit a quarterly record on tax credit expiration

September marked another banner month for Ford’s electric vehicle business, with EV sales climbing 85% from the same month last year to more than 11,700 units.

For the third quarter as a whole, Ford’s electrified unit sales grew nearly 20%. That’s the division’s best Q3 on record, boosted by the looming end of the $7,500 federal tax credit on Tuesday. Ford, with rival GM, has found some ways to extend that credit in the hopes of keeping sales stable.

Overall, Ford sales rose 8.2% on the quarter, and September was the automaker’s seventh straight month of sales gains. Ford sales have been buoyed this year by panic buying: first from fears of tariff price hikes (and Ford’s strong incentives), and lately from the EV credit expiration.