free slot machine games Expert warns of signs that employees are losing moraleAn unexpected find on a family camping trip last week has reunited a young boy with a prized possession he lost seven months ago. Neil Keene was camping with his young children and his brother's family at a popular campground near the Gloucester River on when something caught his eye in the water. "We were maybe 400 metres upstream of where the campground is and the kids were jumping in the water. My brother was helping them in at one end and I was further downstream to catch them," the Lake Macquarie man told Yahoo News. "I was waiting there when I saw this strap kind of just floating underneath the water." The said whatever was in the river "didn't look natural" and it was clearly covered in mud and growth from the river. "I grabbed it and pulled it out and it was this camera... it was so exciting," he said. It took a great deal of effort for Neil to figure out , unable to access the photos initially. "It was crusty and the locking mechanism wouldn't budge... I had to wait until I was home and use WD40," Neil said. To his delight, there was an SD card inside and he was able to recover the photos — all of which portrayed a wholesome family holiday. He jumped on in hopes of finding the owner and within hours, he got a message. "It was only a couple of hours before the woman whose son Curtis owned the camera got in touch... they're from the Gold Coast... they'd actually been travelling around Australia for a couple of years and Gloucester River was one of their last stops on their trip back in April," he said. Curtis's mum Carly explained to Neil the family were devastated when he lost his camera and they waded through the river trying to find it. 🧐 🛫 🐕 The camera is now on its way back to its rightful owner and and surprise for Curtis, who desperately wants his camera back. "I've sent it back with a little note from our family to theirs and I put $10 in with the camera case... it's Christmas after all," he said. "I have twin girls who are eight and this is their first camping trip... our second will be hard to live up to," he said. "Social media often gets a bad reputation, deservedly a lot of the time, but it can be used for good. This is evidence of that."

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Why Luke Lango sees stocks rising in December ... China bans exports to the U.S. of a key rare earth metal ... pricing challenges at MCD ... ADP jobs data ... and Apple partners with Coinbase It was a blistering November for stocks. The S&P 500 rose 5.73% and the Dow jumped 7.54%, marking their best monthly performance of 2024. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq climbed 6.21% for its largest gain since May. Where does the market go next? According to our tech expert Luke Lango, the answer is “even higher.” Let’s quickly tour through his four reasons, the first of which is “bullish seasonality.” From Luke: Since 1950, the stock market has risen about 80% of the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year. And for the past five years, the market rallied from Dec. 2 into the end of the year all but once. The second is “a dovish Fed”: The Federal Reserve will likely play the part of Santa, not the Grinch, later this month... It is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points at that upcoming meeting. But more important than the actual rate-cut decision will be Fed Board Chair Jerome Powell’s tone in the post-meeting press conference... [We think he will sound] dovish and signal that the cuts will keep coming. Third, Luke points toward “robust consumer spending”: It looks like this holiday shopping season will be quite a strong one. According to data from Mastercard ( MA ), Adobe Analytics, and Salesforce ( CRM ), the 2024 holiday shopping season is off to a record start... By some metrics, we’re looking at potentially the best holiday shopping season since Covid emerged more than four years ago. Finally, Luke highlights “falling inflation:” Reinflation fears have, in our view, been the one obstacle holding the market back in recent weeks – and rightfully so. For a while there, real-time measures of inflation had been reheating... But [Truflation’s U.S. Inflation Index] has slid to 2.7% over the past two weeks. This seems to suggest that the recent bout of reinflation has at least temporarily stalled. Put it altogether and Luke believes we’re in for a strong Santa Rally to end the year. This comes after what was an extraordinary November for Luke’s Innovation Investor subscribers. They locked in the following profits: We’re thrilled to highlight these wins for subscribers and couldn’t be prouder of Luke . Better still, if he’s right, more profits are on the way as we round out the year. Yesterday brought news that China has tightened its grip on two obscure yet indispensable elements that are cornerstones for next-gen technologies. Here’s Bloomberg with more: China ratcheted up trade tensions with the US with a ban on several materials with high-tech and military applications, in a tit-for-tat move after President Joe Biden’s government escalated technology curbs on Beijing. Gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials are no longer allowed to be shipped to America, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday. Beijing will also place tighter controls on sales of graphite, it added. This is important because these elements have a wide range of applications – from semiconductors, to satellites, to night-vision goggles, and beyond. Here’s a graphic illustrating how many industries rely on gallium. If you can’t see/read it, the takeaway is basically “all things tech.” After news broke yesterday, western-based rare-earth materials companies popped. For example, Las Vegas-based Mp Materials Corp ( MP ) shot up 11%, Canadian-based Ucore Rare Metals added 23%, and tiny Texas Mineral Resources Corp erupted 34% (and it’s up another 15% as I write Wednesday). This could serve as a preview of what’s on the way if Trump ratchets up the trade war with China. It risks putting upward pressure on inflation for related tech products in 2025 – a dynamic we’ve been warning about repeatedly here in the Digest . We’ll keep you updated as this story unfolds. In the wake of the pandemic and supply chain problems, McDonald’s raised prices as its input costs soared. You may recall last May when the president of McDonald’s U.S. business, Joe Erlinger penned an open letter, explaining why the average price of a Big Mac in the U.S. is 21% higher than in 2019. He pointed toward the company’s own higher costs. The problem is that these higher prices (which protected McDonald’s profit margins) have made the fast-food giant no longer affordable for a huge percentage of Americans. From Bloomberg : After decades of stagnant wages, depleted pandemic savings and the highest inflation since the disco era, many Americans are broke. So much so that in February, McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski told investors that fewer “low-income consumers,” by which he means households earning $45,000 a year or less, are showing up for meals at McDonald’s. According to the latest Census Bureau data, roughly 28% of US households earn less than $45,000 a year. This translates into roughly 90 million Americans. Now, so far, this hasn’t made a dent in McDonald’s overall profitability. But at some point, the fast-food icon will have trouble passing along inflationary cost increases to protect its margins without kneecapping revenues. Back to Bloomberg : [If inflation rises], someone will have to pick up the tab. Companies shouldn’t assume it will be consumers, as McDonald’s has discovered... What is clear is that McDonald’s can no longer serve the broad public, as it always has, without absorbing some of the cost because a substantial portion of its customers have reached their spending limit. It’s a balance that many U.S. executives may have to navigate in 2025: Do you raise prices to protect margins, while risking raising them too high, resulting in fewer customers... or do you eat some of your higher input costs to keep customers happy, which means lower profit margins? At the end of the day, which will have the greatest positive impact on overall profitability? Keep in mind that analysts are projecting calendar year 2025 earnings growth of 15% and revenue growth of 5.7% for the S&P. That’s a lot. For context, for 2024, analysts project earnings growth of 12% and revenue growth of 4.7%. This is happening as the labor market tightens up, which could mean even tighter purse strings for some Americans, which brings us to our next story... ADP released its latest private payrolls report showing that U.S. businesses added 146,000 jobs on the month. That was shy of the downwardly revised 184,000 in October and less than the Dow Jones estimate for 163,000. In positive news, wage growth accelerated by 4.8%, which was faster than October’s increase. Here’s ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson: While overall growth for the month was healthy, industry performance was mixed. Manufacturing was the weakest we’ve seen since spring. Financial services and leisure and hospitality were also soft. The more closely watched labor report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out Friday. You’ll recall that its October release showed an increase of just 12,000 jobs. This was artificially lowered by the Boeing strike and hurricanes in the south. The estimate for November is 214,000 jobs. You can be sure the Fed will be watching closely as it tries to thread the needle between maintaining a healthy labor market and taming inflation. In what marks a momentous step into the mainstream, Apple announced that it’s partnering with crypto platform Coinbase to enable crypto purchases through Apple Pay in third-party apps. From CEO Today : The integration is part of Coinbase Onramp—a service designed to streamline the conversion of traditional currencies, such as USD, into digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The move signifies a turning point for the cryptocurrency ecosystem, as two major tech and financial players join forces to simplify the notoriously complex process of acquiring digital currencies. By leveraging Apple Pay’s widespread adoption and Coinbase’s crypto expertise, this partnership could redefine how consumers and developers interact with cryptocurrencies. Here’s more from Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong: This partnership is a game-changer. It eliminates many of the barriers that have kept average consumers from exploring cryptocurrencies. By integrating with Apple Pay, we’re bringing crypto to the fingertips of millions of users. We continue to be bullish on Bitcoin and the emerging “altcoin season.” If you missed yesterday’s Digest on altcoins, click here to catch it . Bottom line: We believe a tremendous amount of wealth will be made in the crypto sector in 2025. This latest news from Apple and Coinbase only adds to that conviction. We’ll end today by circling back to Luke’s bullishness at the start of the issue. Yes, there are reasons to maintain caution today, and we’ll continue highlighting them so that you’re not caught off-guard as we move into 2025. But we’re in a money-making market. So, until bullish momentum turns, stay invested. While it may or may not be a white Christmas, from the looks of it, it’ll be plenty green. Have a good evening, Jeff Remsburg

The leader of Sinn Fein has expressed determination to form a government of the left in Ireland as she insisted her party’s performance in the General Election had broken the state’s political mould. Despite Mary Lou McDonald’s confidence around shaping a coalition without Fine Gael and Fianna Fail – the two parties that have dominated the landscape of Irish politics for a century – the pathway to government for Sinn Fein still appears challenging. With counting following Friday’s election still in the relatively early stages – after an exit poll that showed the main three parties effectively neck-and-neck – there is some way to go before the final picture emerges and the options for government formation crystalise. Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader, Simon Harris, has dismissed talk of a Sinn Fein surge and said he was “cautiously optimistic” about where his party will stand after all the votes are counted. Meanwhile, Ireland’s deputy premier and Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, insisted his party has a “very clear route back to government” as he predicted seat gains. The counting process could last days because of Ireland’s complex system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV), where candidates are ranked by preference. The leaders of the main three parties were all re-elected as TDs on Saturday evening, topping the polls in their respective constituencies. The early indications have turned the focus to the tricky arithmetic of government formation, as the country’s several smaller parties and many independents potentially jockey for a place in government. Ms McDonald told reporters at the RDS count centre in Dublin that she would be “very, very actively pursuing” the potential to form a government with other parties on the left of the political spectrum. The smaller, left-leaning parties in Ireland include the Social Democrats, the Irish Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit-Solidarity. Ms McDonald said her party had delivered an “incredible performance” in the election. “I think it’s fair to say that we have now confirmed that we have broken the political mould here in this state,” she said. “Two party politics is now gone. It’s consigned to the dustbin of history and that, in itself, is very significant.” She added: “I am looking to bring about a government of change, and I’m going to go and look at all formulations. “If you want my bottom line, the idea of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for another five years, in our strong opinion, is not a good outcome for Irish society. “Obviously, I want to talk to other parties of the left and those that we share very significant policy objectives with. So I’m going to do that first and just hear their mind, hear their thinking. But be very clear, we will be very, very actively pursuing entrance into government.” In Friday night’s exit poll, Sinn Fein was predicted to take 21.1% of first-preference votes, narrowly ahead of outgoing coalition partners Fine Gael and Fianna Fail at 21% and 19.5% respectively. Prior to the election, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both ruled out entering government with Sinn Fein. Fine Gael leader Mr Harris rejected suggestions Sinn Fein had broken new ground. He told reporters in his count centre in Greystones, Co Wicklow: “Certainly we haven’t seen a Sinn Fein surge or anything like it. “I mean, it looks likely, on the figures that we’ve seen now, fewer people, many fewer people would have voted Sinn Fein in this election than the last one. “In fact, I think they’re down by around 5% and actually the parties, particularly the two parties, the two larger parties in government, are likely to receive significant support from the electorate. So definitely, politics in Ireland has gotten much more fragmented.” He said it was too early to tell what the next government would look like. “I think anybody who makes any suggestion about who is going to be the largest party or the construct of the next government, they’re a braver person than I am,” he said. “Our electoral system dictates that there’ll be many, many transfers that will go on for hours, if not days, before we know the final computations at all. “But what I am very confident about is that my party will have a very significant role to play in the years ahead, and I’m cautiously optimistic and excited.” Fianna Fail’s Mr Martin told reporters at a count centre in Cork he was confident that the numbers exist to form a government with parties that shared his political viewpoint. Mr Martin said it “remains to be seen” whether he would return to the role of Taoiseach – a position he held between 2020 and 2022 – but he expressed confidence his party would outperform the exit poll prediction. “It’s a bit too early yet to call the exact type of government that will be formed or the composition of the next government,” he said. “But I think there are, there will be a sufficiency of seats, it seems to me, that aligns with the core principles that I articulated at the outset of this campaign and throughout the campaign, around the pro-enterprise economy, around a positively pro-European position, a government that will strongly push for home ownership and around parties that are transparently democratic in how they conduct their affairs.” Asked if it would be in a coalition with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Social Democrats, he said that would be “racing a bit too far ahead”. The final result may dictate that if Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are to return to government, they may need more than one junior partner, or potentially the buy-in of several independent TDs. Mr Martin said it was unclear how quickly a government can be formed, as he predicted his party would gain new seats. “It will be challenging. This is not easy,” he added. The junior partner in the outgoing government – the Green Party – looks set for a bruising set of results. Green leader Roderic O’Gorman is in a fight to hold onto his seat, as are a number of party colleagues, including Media Minister Catherine Martin. “It’s clear the Green Party has not had a good day,” he said. The early counting also suggested potential trouble for Fianna Fail in Wicklow, where the party’s only candidate in the constituency, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, is considered to have a battle ahead, with the risk of losing his seat. Meanwhile, there is significant focus on independent candidate Gerard Hutch who, on Saturday evening, was sitting in fourth place in the four-seat constituency of Dublin Central. Last spring, Mr Hutch was found not guilty by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of the murder of David Byrne, in one of the first deadly attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud. Mr Byrne, 33, died after being shot six times at a crowded boxing weigh-in event at the Regency Hotel in February 2016. A Special Criminal Court judge described Mr Hutch, 61, as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he had engaged in “serious criminal conduct”. The constituency will be closely watched as other hopefuls wait to see if transfers from eliminated candidates may eventually rule him out of contention. In the constituency of Louth, the much-criticised selection of John McGahon appeared not to have paid off for Fine Gael. The party’s campaign was beset by questioning over footage entering the public domain of the candidate engaged in a fight outside a pub in 2018. The Social Democrats have a strong chance of emerging as the largest of the smaller parties. The party’s leader, Holly Cairns, was already celebrating before a single vote was counted however, having announced the birth of her baby girl on polling day.The Bank of Scotland’s business barometer poll showed 73% of Scottish businesses expect to see turnover increase in 2025, up from 60% polled in 2023. Almost a quarter (23%) of businesses expect to see their revenue rise by between six and 10% over the next 12 months, with just over a fifth (21%) expecting it to grow by even more. The poll found that 70% of businesses were confident they would become more profitable in 2025, a two per cent increase when compared with the previous year. Revenue and profitability growth was firms’ top priority at 52%, though 40% said they will be targeting improved productivity, and the same proportion said they will be aiming to enhance their technology – such as automation or AI – or upskill their staff (both 29%). More than one in five (22%) want to improve their environmental sustainability. Other areas businesses are hoping to build upon AI-assisted technology (19%), and 24% will be investing in expanding into new UK markets and 23% plan to invest in staff training. The business barometer has surveyed 1,200 businesses every month since 2002, providing early signals about UK economic trends. Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland commercial banking, said: “Scottish businesses are looking ahead to 2025 with stronger growth expectations, and setting out clear plans to drive this expansion through investments in new technology, new markets and their own teams. “As we enter the new year, we’ll continue to by their side to help them pursue their ambitions and seize all opportunities that lie ahead.”