1) Economic growth revised downwards to 3.4% for the fourth quarter.
2) De Beers, the major marketeer of diamonds, is fighting back on lab-grown diamonds. For decades De Beers has refused to sell artificial diamonds, but the widen price gap is cutting into the sales of traditional diamonds, with artificial diamonds now 42% lower. With growing sales to the millennials, De Beers has invested in a factory to produce its own artificial diamonds.
3) The Dow had the largest single day gain in history of over 1000 points, a drastic reversal of the previous consecutive days of large losses. The sudden unexpected surge is driven by the best holiday retail sales season in six years, with $850 billion dollars in Christmas sales, making it a record breaking season. Fears abound that this will be reversed in the near future because of the troubled world economies.
4) 26 DEC 18 Stock market closings: Record breaking gains.