Americans' Good Vibes on the Econonmy, Best Selling Games of 2023
Meta's Next Plan, Japan Moon Landing
At the start of 2024, Americans are optimistic about the economy. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment gauge, an indicator of national financial mood, has seen a jump to 78.8, the highest level since July 2021. This is up from 69.7 the previous month and 64.9 a year ago.
This positive shift follows a significant increase in December, making it the most substantial two-month rise since 1991.
But Why Good Vibes?
One of the key factors contributing to this surge is the easing of inflation concerns. Year-ahead inflation expectations softened to 2.9%, reaching the lowest levels since December 2020.
This trend aligns with broader economic indicators, including a recent drop in consumer inflation to 3.4% year over year from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
Economists attribute this upward trend to the combination of a strong labor market, falling inflation expectations, and a positive impact on real wages.
Best Selling Games of 2023
In 2023, the gaming industry's total sales for the industry reached nearly $57.2 billion, a 1% increase compared to the $56.6 billion recorded in 2022. Hardware sales remained largely consistent, standing at $6.6 billion, while game sales (Both retail and digital transactions) saw a slight uptick from $47.5 billion to $48 billion.
The top 20 best-selling games of 2023, according to recent Circana's data, include:
1. Hogwarts Legacy
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
4. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
5. Madden NFL 24
6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
7. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
8. Diablo IV
9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
10. EA Sports FC 24
11. Starfield
12. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
13. Mortal Kombat 1
14. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
15. Dead Island 2
16. Final Fantasy XVI
17. Street Fighter 6
18. Elden Ring
19. Mario Kart 8
20. Minecraft
Microsoft, through its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, owns five of the top 20 best-selling games of 2023 in the US.
Meta's Ambitious Plans
Meta is making strides in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) with CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlining the company's future roadmap. In a video posted on Instagram, Zuckerberg revealed Meta's commitment to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the long-term vision of making it open source for widespread accessibility.
The core of Meta's AI is the Llama 3, a large language model (LLM) designed to comprehend and generate human language text.
To power Llama 3, Meta is acquiring 350,000 H100 graphics cards from Nvidia, along with other chips, amounting to nearly 600,000 H100 equivalents.
Meta is bringing together its AI research teams, FAIR and GenAI, to build open-source intelligence and open-sourcing it whenever feasible.
Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of a "massive compute infrastructure" as part of the company's future roadmap to achieve its AI ambitions.
Zuckerberg has previously stated that "AI will be our biggest investment area in 2024, both in engineering and computer resources."
U.S. Home Sales
Sales of existing homes in the United States faced a setback in 2023, marking the slowest year in almost 30 years. The National Association of Realtors reported an 18.7% decline, with total sales reaching 4.09 million, a figure not seen since 1995. This downturn represents the most substantial annual drop since the housing crisis in 2007.
The primary factors contributing to this decline were the considerable increase in mortgage rates, home prices, and a low inventory of available homes.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage reached 7.79% by late October, the highest level since the late 2000s and the median national home price reached a record high of $389,800.
At the end of December 2023, there were only 1 million homes on the market, a 4.2% increase from the previous year but significantly below the historical monthly average of about 2.25 million.
First-time homebuyers accounted for just 29% of all homes sold last month, a decline from 31% in both November and December 2022 and well below the historical average of 40%.
Japan's SLIM Lunar Lander
Japan has successfully landed its SLIM spacecraft on the moon, marking the country as the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing.
Despite the successful landing, “Moon Sniper” faces challenges as its solar cell, critical for electricity generation, is malfunctioning.
The battery may only sustain operations for a few more hours. There is optimism that, with time, the panels may start charging if their direction relative to sunlight changes.
The two small robotic devices, LEV-1 and LEV-2, successfully separated from the SLIM lander and, as of now, are in working condition.
Things to Know:
Walmart U.S. has announced an increase in store manager wages.
🔵 The average salary for store managers is set to rise from $117,000 to $128,000 annually.
🔵 Walmart is redesigning its store manager bonus program. Store managers who meet all targets have the potential to earn up to 200% of their base salary as a bonus.
🔵 The low pay range for store managers will be adjusted to $90,000 up from the previous range of $65,000.
🔵 The company announced an increase in the average hourly wage for front-line hourly employees to $18, up from $17.50, starting next month.
Coursera, a U.S. edutech platform, experienced an increase in enrollments for its artificial intelligence (AI) courses throughout 2023, with a new user joining every minute on average.
Coursera currently offers a comprehensive suite of over 800 AI courses, with more than 7.4 million enrollments in the previous year.
Every student on the Coursera platform receives access to an AI assistant named "Coach," built using large language models from OpenAI and Google's Gemini.
Kaspi.kz, a Kazakhstan-based banking and fintech giant, made its Nasdaq debut with a valuation of $17.51 billion, slightly above its offer price.
Kaspi.kz's American depositary shares opened at $92.50 each, a modest increase from their IPO price of $92.
The company successfully raised over $1 billion for its investors.
The IPO saw an upsizing of the offering to 11.3 million shares, up from the initial plan of 9 million shares. The company, already listed on the London Stock Exchange, holds a valuation exceeding $19 billion in that market.
AI-powered customer service chatbot of international delivery service DPD went rogue during an interaction with a frustrated customer.
A person named Beauchamp, seeking assistance in tracking down a missing parcel, expressed dissatisfaction with the chatbot's responses.
Turning the situation into an experiment, he prompted the chatbot to tell a joke, write a poem about its uselessness, swear, and criticize the company. Surprisingly, the chatbot complied with each request.
The company promptly disabled the AI element and is working on an update.
Flexport, San Francisco-based digital freight forwarder has received a $260 million investment from e-commerce giant Shopify. The funds were provided through an uncapped convertible note, as announced by Flexport's Founder and CEO.
Last year, Flexport expanded its services into e-commerce fulfillment and last-mile delivery through the acquisition of Shopify's logistics business. In return, Shopify gained a 13% equity stake in Flexport and secured a seat on the board.
The two companies collaborated further in February 2023, introducing a tool to help Shopify sellers manage and track inbound ocean shipments.