U.S. retail sales rose 3.1% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, reflecting a year marked by rising prices. After a busy Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, many consumers waited for the last minute to shop, with Saturday, Dec. 23, the biggest sales day of the year—topping Black Friday.

The 30-year mortgage rate has fallen by more than a percentage point recently to 6.62%. The shrinking spread between that and the 10-year Treasury yield amounts to roughly one-sixth of the decline.

General Motors just had its best year for vehicle sales since 2019. The automaker reported that it sold 2.6 million vehicles in 2023 — good for a 14.1% increase over 2022.

The employee retention tax credit (ERC), projected to cost the government $55 billion, is a Covid giveaway that keeps on giving. The government has paid $230 billion in claims, including about $120 billion this year.

The December index of consumer sentiment jumped to 69.7 from November’s 61.3. This was still below its April 2020 level of 71.8. In February 2020, it was at 101.

Warburg Pincus turned to investment giant Apollo Global Management Inc. for a $1 billion loan to pay down bank facilities involving an older fund.

U.S. Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, is being acquired by Nippon Steel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $14.1 billion. The transaction is worth about $14.9 billion when including the assumption of debt. The price tag for U.S. Steel is nearly double what was offered just four months ago by rival Cleveland Cliffs.

In the U.S., tax receipts at all levels of government climbed to nearly 28% of GDP last year, up from 25% in 2019 and the highest level since at least 1965.

The VIX gauge of implied volatility this week reached its lowest since before the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. The ratio of put options written to protect a portfolio to bullish call options has plunged back to what counted then as unusually low levels. Each of the past three years had a similarly strong consensus that proved entirely wrong.

Consumer spending showed unexpected strength at the start of the holiday shopping season, as Americans shopped in-person and online, shrugging off signs of economic cooling. Retail sales, which include spending at stores, restaurants and gas stations, rose 0.3% in November from the month before, while economists had expected sales to fall. Sales rose 4.1% in November from a year earlier, outpacing inflation.