This Week In History: December 9th - December 15th

The holiday season is in full swing, and things are looking good.

The S&P 500 has reached record highs as shares of NVIDIA, Amazon, and Facebook keep climbing, and the NASDAQ 100 is up 62% on the year.

Holiday shopping is back to pre-pandemic levels, with 81.7 million customers hitting brick-and-mortar stores and spending $10.8 billion on Black Friday. Even better, online sales were up 14% on Cyber Monday, with customers spending $14.8 billion.

Movie theatres just saw the biggest Thanksgiving box office take ever, with Moana 2, Gladiator 2, and Wicked bringing in over $420 million.

Most importantly, the McRib is back, directly causing* Bitcoin to break $100,000 for the first time.

Stay bullish.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest market events from this week in history.

December 15, 1983 – Apple’s Iconic “1984” Ad Debuts 📅

During Super Bowl XVIII in 1984, viewers saw Apple’s now-famous “1984” commercial, promoting the launch of its revolutionary Macintosh computer. Directed by Ridley Scott and inspired by George Orwell’s novel, the commercial featured a lone woman smashing a screen depicting "Big Brother", representing Apple's challenge to the dominance of IBM and highlighting the Macintosh as a user-friendly PC.

The commercial captured widespread attention, transformed advertising in the tech industry, and is widely celebrated as one of the greatest commercials of all time.

Except… that wasn’t the first time the ad had been shown. Unbeknownst to most viewers, it had played once at 1am on local television in Twin Peaks, Idaho six weeks earlier.

Why?

So the commercial would be eligible for advertising awards during the 1983 calendar year.

Check out this 1980s era Apple Computer Stock Certificate replica postcard in the Ticker History Shop.

_{This Week In History is presented by our partners at T-REX ETFs}

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December 11, 2019 – Saudi Aramco IPOs 📅

The Saudi Aramco IPO is the largest stock debut in history, raising $25.6 billion on Tadawal, the Saudi Stock Exchange. Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, offered 1.5% of its shares to the public at 32 riyals ($8.53) each, valuing the company at approximately $1.7 trillion. The IPO was a key component of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, a plan aimed at diversifying the kingdom’s economy beyond oil dependency.

The IPO showed how difficult it can be to balance government control with the demands of shareholders. Now a public company, the Saudi government was open to more scrutiny than ever, particularly with transparency around the kingdom’s reliance on oil reserves for revenue.

Saudi Aramco’s debut as a public company solidified their position as a key player in the global energy market. Today, it is the 6th largest company in the world with a market cap of $1.8 trillion, bigger than Meta, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway.

For historic oli, gas and energy stock certificates like this rare Standard Oil Trust signed by John D Rockefeller from 1890, check out the Ticker History Shop.

December 14, 2000 – Time Warner and AOL Merger Finalized 📅

On this day, Time Warner and America Online announced a $165 billion merger, creating one of the largest media and internet companies ever. The deal combined Time Warner's film, television, and publishing library with AOL's internet services and digital networks. At the time, it was hailed as a visionary move, bringing together old and new media.

However, the merger soon became one of the most infamous failures in corporate history. The bursting of the dot-com bubble, cultural clashes between the two companies, and a failure of several strategic initiatives led to massive financial losses. AOL's user base declined sharply as broadband internet overtook dial-up services and Time Warner struggled to align its old-school media operations with AOL’s digital business model.

By 2009, the companies had officially split.

For historic media stock certificates like this Cablevision print, check out the Ticker History Shop.

Market Quotes: 1974 📅

Looking Forward 📅

That’s old news- what can we look forward to this week?

-Adobe (12/11), Macy’s (12/11), and Costco (12/12) earnings reports

-Next-gen Huawei foldable smartphone debuts (12/12)

-Bureau of Labor Statistics releases Consumer Price Index (CPI), key indicator of inflation (12/11)

-Bureau of Labor Statistics releases Import Price Index, data which could affect Trump’s implementation of tariffs (12/13)

Wishing you the best of luck this trading week. Stay bullish.

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