1) Walt Disney’s Star War’s empire has been fading at the box office with many fans finding the new offerings less than anticipated. The last chapter of the Star Wars series, The Rise of Skywalker, is being heavily promoted to halt the financial slide. In playing up the nostalgia aspects and the fact that this will be the last Star Wars release for years, they are trying to reverse the downward slide of the franchise, which Walt Disney purchased from George Lucas for $4 billion dollars in 2012.

2) Ford Motor Company plans to invest more than $1.45 billion dollars in two of its manufacturing facilities in Detroit, to make electric, autonomous and sports-utility vehicles. The new manufacturing will add 3,000 jobs, with Ford saying it will invest $11 billion dollars to make forty new hybrid and fully electric vehicles by 2022.

3) Fears continue that Boeing’s halting of the 737 MAX production could have serious impact on the U.S. economy next year. This production halt is anticipated to go until March and April of next year. Presently, Boeing has 400 airplanes in storage awaiting delivery. The production halt will impact everything from airlines to parts manufacturers, with a supply chain consisting of hundreds of firms and tens of thousands of workers. This widely diversified economic network makes forecasting the total economic impact of Boeing very difficult.

4) Stock market closings for – 17 DEC 19:

Dow                  28,267.16    up    31.27
Nasdaq             8,823.36    up       9.13
S&P 500            3,192.52   up        1.07

10 Year Yield:    unchanged   at    1.89%

Oil:    up   at    $60.54

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