1) Amazon has opened another cashier-less store where video cameras watch customers pick items off the shelves and totals their bill, automatically charging their credit card. This is another sign of how consumerism is becoming more automated.
2) Every state’s pension fund is underfunded, not taking in enough money to cover their future obligations. The smallest pension funding gap, the different of assets to obligations, is $335 million dollars, where now 10,000 people turn 65 each day.
3) Slow sales of traditional brick and mortar retail stores appears to now be spreading to European E-marketing, who are also suffering from slow sales.
4) 17 DEC 18 Stock market closing: The week starts with continued downward spiral of markets.
Dow 23,592.98 down 507.53
Nasdaq 6,753.73 down 156.93
S&P 500 2,545.94 down 54.01
10 Year Yield: down at 2.86%
Oil: down at $49.30