🎉 NYC’s NYE debate
![Waiting for the New Year’s ball drop [Jason Dean via Getty Images]](https://cdn.robinhood.com/static_content/mwphzyq69oso/en-US/assets/files/wd9TRK8SYM06ccXzZvT1d_1_GettyImages-1258936842.jpg)
Hey Snackers,
Don’t forget to send those holiday texts: The world’s first text message ever sent, "Merry Christmas," sold as an NFT for $121K at an auction house in Paris.
Stocks rose for a second day as better-than-expected consumer-confidence numbers suggest pandemic and inflation fears are cooling.
Speaking of holidays, this is our last newsletter until Monday, January 3, when we’re serving up a special futuristic edition. Thank you for snacking with us this year. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
As NYC considers downsizing New Year’s Eve, a year of IRL events hangs in the balance
Hold the party horns… This week NYC officials are debating new restrictions for its famous Times Square celebration as Omicron cases spike. At this writing, NYC’s NYE party will require vaccination but not masks or boosters.
- NYC’s vax rate is higher than the national average, but its Omicron cases also doubled last week. Mayor Bill de Blasio said new NYE restrictions, like mask mandates, will be announced by Xmas.
- Big events across the city, from Broadway shows to holiday concerts and NBA games, were also canceled last week because of Omicron.
Bigger than the Big Apple… NYC planners aren’t the only ones considering last-minute changes to curb Omicron’s spread. Event organizers and travelers worldwide have debated whether to cancel plans:
- IRL work: Two-thirds of companies, including Apple, Ford, and Google, have postponed office returns.
- Holiday travel was split: Domestic travel appears to be mostly unaffected, while international travelers are canceling plans because of new restrictions in countries like France and the Netherlands, which has entered a full lockdown until mid-January.
- Large events are also mixed: January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has been postponed, though next month’s CES event in Vegas is still on.
Next year’s calendar is up in the air… It’s too soon to tell whether 2022 will be the year IRL events make a comeback. The $100B conferences and events industry is closing the year in a wobbly spot, despite significant recovery from its darkest days of lockdown. Markets have risen since Omicron first appeared in the US, but analysts disagree over how much Omicron could affect business next year. Take airlines: Delta expects profits to rise as travel rebounds, but European airline Ryanair lowered forecasts on expectations that Omicron will limit travel.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Ship: Maersk, the world’s largest container-shipping company, is buying LF Logistics for $3.6B to support its booming ocean-freight biz with new distribution centers — hot commodities given the supply-chain snarls.
- Crypto: China’s official Xinhua News Agency unveiled its first NFT collection: 10K copies of 11 photos taken this year. Chinese regulators have cracked down on crypto trading and said NFTs and the metaverse should be closely monitored.
- Games: US regulators are investigating the safety risks of Tesla's “Passenger Play” feature, which lets drivers play games on their dashboard screen while driving. It's the second investigation for Tesla this year, after Autopilot.
- Shop: Companies bought back a record $850B worth of shares this year as the pandemic rebound buoyed corporate earnings. Next year they plan to spend even more, but face scrutiny over whether the buybacks hurt wages.
- Cereal: Cheerios maker General Mills is hiking prices (again) as labor and material costs continue to spike from supply-chain backups. In the past year, the cost of eating at home has seen the highest price jump since 2008.
- Gifts: Despite fears that Christmas presents would be late this year, FedEx, UPS, and USPS shipped out nearly all packages on time thanks to early and IRL holiday shopping.
Thursday
- December Consumer Confidence Index
Correction: In the Snacks newsletter published on Tuesday, December 21, we misstated the cost of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. It’s $1.7T, not $1.7B. We’ve updated the online version of the newsletter, and we regret the error.
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple, Amazon, Delta, Ford, Google, Spotify, and Tesla
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