IlluMyFi

By clicking "Sign Up", you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time. Reusable water bottles have become one of the hottest status symbols among millennials, Gen Zs, and Gen As in recent years, whether they're Hydro Flasks, Starbucks tumblers, or Stanley cups. It's the latter that's in the spotlight at the moment, with huge lines forming outside Target stores as people raced to snap up the limited-edition Stanley Valentine's Day cup. The drop has sparked a lucrative resale market for the magenta and red cups. The brand's block-colored cups, called Quenchers, were the most-featured item in Gen Z Christmas haul videos on TikTok, Casey Lewis, a youth consumer trends analyst, previously told Business Insider. One mom says that her nine-year-old daughter was even mocked by classmates after she got an off-brand tall plastic cup with a straw for Christmas. Dayna Motycka said in a TikTok video that she bought her daughter the $9.98 cup from Walmart for Christmas. Her daughter had said it looked cute, Motycka said. But when her daughter looked upset when she came home from school after the holidays, Motycka said it was due to her off-brand cup. Many of her classmates had been given Stanley cups for Christmas, and "they made sure to let her know that this is not a real Stanley, that this is fake and it's not as cool," Motycka said. "Can we afford to buy her a Stanley? Yes. Did I think that she needed one? No," Motycka said. "Apparently I've been proven wrong by the children in our school that are making fun of her for not having a real name-brand Stanley." Motycka, who herself owns a Stanley cup, said she went on to buy her daughter a $35 30-ounce white Stanley cup. "If you're a parent and you can do something to keep your child from getting made fun of, to help fit in, you're gonna do it," she said. Motycka blamed the kids' parents for the teasing. "This doesn't start with the kids," she said. "We have got to teach our kids to not make other kids feel inferior for not having the things that they have." In the video's comments, people expressed surprise that Motycka decided to buy a Quencher for her daughter, saying that the mom should be more assertive in showing her daughter that material possessions don't define her self-worth. Motycka said in a follow-up video that her own desire for name-brand items, like a $90 Bogg bag, may have influenced her daughter's mindset. She said that she herself needed to take responsibility and place less importance on brands if she wanted a mindset change among younger generations. In a comment on her initial video, which has 3.3 million views, she said that things had been tougher for her daughter since it went viral.

Sentiment

Bearish/Bullish

13.01.24 01:26

by markets.businessinsider.com

Falling stocks, recession, and historic debt: Here's the bear case for markets a...

By clicking "Sign Up", you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time. Record-high S&P 500 year-end targets and soft-landing calls for 2024 suggest Wall Street is optimistic for what's to come. But market veterans caution the bear case is still alive. There's a chance the full effects Federal Reserve's restrictive policy haven't fully materialized yet, and experts say there are still plenty of hazards that could arise even as the central bank starts to think about cutting rates. Stubborn inflation, rising US debt, and a fatigued US consumer, among other factors, could tip the economy into a recession -- and hurt the stock market along the way. The latest inflation data, for starters, showed consumer prices unexpectedly moved higher in December to 3.4% year-over-year, above the prior month's 3.1%. That's muddled the outlook for Fed policy and tempered expectations for rate cuts as soon as March. "What's most important is that it's now very clear that a recession is not needed to bring inflation down to 2%, so any recession that occurs would be a mistake committed by the Fed," Morningstar chief economist Preston Caldwell told Business Insider. "And it would be a mistake that would be corrected quickly by rapid and deep rate cuts," he added. Should lagged rate-hiking effects indeed catch up to the economy, hiring would slow down, unemployment would rise, and consumption would ultimately decline, according to Allianz's senior investment strategist, Charlie Ripley. "The feedback loop to equity markets would be a decline in profit margins and lead to a decline in broad equity indices," Ripley told Business Insider. "In order for this to happen, we would have to see unemployment rise well above 4% and somewhere close to the 5% level." Historical data suggests stock market returns are mixed during a downturn. Of the 31 recessions that have struck the US since the Civil War, equities saw positive returns in about half of those instances. It's also worth noting that stock market returns have been highly concentrated in the Magnificent Seven mega-cap stocks in the last year, and a significant dip in those names could result in a strong move down for the broader market. Americans have effectively blown through all their savings from the pandemic, and a spending slowdown may already be underway. Credit card delinquencies are surging, people are saving less, and consumer confidence is tepid. Even retail hiring took a dip during the holidays, which suggests businesses are also turning cautious. "While the economy seems strong based on backward-looking data, it's quite fragile if the consumer pulls back," said Sal Naro, the chief investment officer of Coherence Credit Strategies. "That pullback would result in businesses reducing capital expenditures and employee headcount to limit profit margin deterioration, further exacerbating consumer spending weakness and creating a vicious downwards cycle." But it isn't just households. The government is racking u...