Weekend roundup

Here’s what you missed while you were living your best life:

• ✉️ Eurozone inflation edges up despite core stability. Inflation rose to 2.3% in November, but “core” inflation stayed at 2.7%, signaling weak demand across the eurozone. Economists predict price moderation in early 2025 as activity continues to cool.

• 🛢️ Trump’s oil price pledge rattles markets. The President-elect’s promise to “drill, baby, drill” and cut oil prices in half could upend emerging economies reliant on high energy prices. While importers may benefit, producers like Nigeria and Angola face mounting debt challenges.

• 🤖 OpenAI considers ads to fuel growth. The ChatGPT maker is eyeing advertising as a potential revenue source to support its costly AI developments. With a $150 billion valuation and $5 billion in annual burn, the company is exploring options to monetize its massive user base.

Featured weekend story

📉 Middle Managers Hit a Career Crossroads

Middle managers are quickly becoming an endangered species. In the past two years, companies have taken a machete to their hierarchies, “flattening” organizational structures to boost efficiency and cut costs. Tens of thousands of middle-management roles have vanished as part of this so-called “Great Flattening.”

This corporate shake-up started with Meta, where Mark Zuckerberg dismissed layers of supervision as unnecessary “managers managing managers.” Citi, Amazon, and UPS soon followed, shedding thousands of management jobs to streamline operations. But it’s not just layoffs causing pain—job postings for middle-management roles are down 42% from their 2022 levels. Experienced supervisors like Rick, a 54-year-old former manager, are stuck in limbo, often rejected for being “overqualified” even when they apply for entry-level roles.

While CEOs champion the efficiencies of leaner teams, the cracks are showing. Burnout is rampant among surviving managers stretched thin by oversized workloads, and Gen Z employees, deprived of mentors, are increasingly checked out. Siloed departments are struggling without middle managers to coordinate and smooth out operations. For people like Rick, the hope lies in companies realizing, sooner rather than later, just how much they miss the ones who kept the wheels turning.

What to watch this week

US stocks are on the rise, fueled by optimism around AI innovation and easing inflation concerns. The Nasdaq and S&P continue to climb, buoyed by tech heavyweights like Apple and Nvidia.

Indices at 7:00 AM (ET)

This week’s key market events:

• 🤖 Tesla’s AI strides. Updates on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 13 are expected to fuel buzz around AI advancements. The S&P’s 2025 rally projections heavily lean on AI-driven optimism.

• 💰 Bitcoin’s surge. Bitcoin is edging closer to $100,000, bolstered by institutional investments and growing retail interest. El Salvador’s $582M bitcoin reserve is in the spotlight.

• ❤️ Dating apps face disruption. Swiping fatigue has led to a wave of new dating startups, from AI-driven matchmaking to in-person social events, aiming to shake up the industry dominated by Tinder and Bumble.

Off-balance sheet items

Here’s what we’re reading this week:

• 🧠 Why "brain rot" is Oxford’s Word of the Year . The term, a nod to social media’s mental toll, beat out “dynamic pricing” and “romantasy” to capture the digital era’s cheeky self-awareness.

• 🌟 The rise of celebrity lookalike contests. From Timothée Chalamet to Dev Patel, these viral events are uniting communities with some wholesome, absurd fun.

• 🎄 The best time to buy your Christmas tree. Data says waiting until the week before Christmas can save you up to 32%—if you’re okay with slim pickings.

Chart of the week:

Cap-Weighted S&P

Credit:
Ben Walsh
Thomson Reuters

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