✈️ Airlines’ holiday rush

…and Adobe hits delete on its Figma deal   Hurry up and wait (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)   [Sponsored by]( Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 37,306 (+0.00%) S&P 500 4,741 (+0.45%) Nasdaq 14,905 (+0.61%) Bitcoin $42,523 (+2.69%) Dow Jones 37,306 (+0.00%) S&P 500 4,741 (+0.45%) Nasdaq 14,905 (+0.61%) Bitcoin $42,523 (+2.69%) Hey Snackers, Calling all Christmas-cookie connoisseurs: Google [shared]( state-specific stats detailing the sweet treats folks searched for ahead of the holidays. Italian Christmas cookies topped the list, but we’re sure Santa will snack on whatever you leave out. Stocks ticked up yesterday as investors leaned into expectations of future rate cuts. Meanwhile, Fed officials cautioned that traders betting on March cuts may be getting ahead of themselves. Check-in One of the busiest travel weeks gets underway as airlines prep for the holiday-season surge Planes, trains, and automobiles… This week kicks off what airlines say could be their busiest holiday-travel season ever. More than 39M Americans are expected to fly tomorrow through January 2 — or about 2.8M passengers/day. (FYI: this year a record 2.9M+ US passengers went through TSA over Thanksgiving weekend.) Overall, 115M Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from their homes, marking the second-busiest end-of-year travel period since 2000. - Lower cost: Ticket prices have cooled from last year’s highs to below prepandemic levels, with the average cost of airfare down 13% on the year as of October. - High fly: One survey suggested that a third of fliers traveled more this year than prepandemic. 3 hours early… for a 2-hour flight. Airlines may finally be back on Santa’s nice list after last year’s winter storm disrupted thousands of flights. Yesterday, [Southwest Airlines]( was ordered to pay a record $140M fine for its meltdown last year, which affected 2M passengers (the low-cost carrier says it’s “absolutely prepared” for this year’s surge). Meanwhile, airlines have been on a hiring spree, with the likes of [Delta]( [American]( and [United]( all expecting strong holiday demand. THE TAKEAWAY Strong winds can boost cruisin’ speeds… As overall US consumer spending gives off mixed signals, travel demand has stayed hot. That may continue: the International Air Transport Association forecasts that airlines will notch record operating profits of nearly $50B next year. Internationally, the # of air travelers next year is also expected to hit a prepandemic high. But miles aren’t the only thing jetsetters have racked up. About 37% of fliers say they’ll spend months paying off holiday bills. Sponsored by hear․com The future of hearing aid tech? Stealth mode. A smaller, mightier hearing aid… Say hello to [Horizon by hear.com](. This tiny German hearing aid is taking the U.S. by storm this year. Why? Partly because it’s tiny. Like superspy-device tiny. Partly because it boasts the world’s first-ever dual processing system. And with double the power comes double the clarity. In non-science-y talk… it just means you get maximum speech clarity with minimal background noise. And you get it from a device so small, it hides completely behind your ear. Ready to join the 385k+ who can hear with crystal clarity thanks to [Horizon hearing aids]( [Take advantage of hear.com’s 45-day no-risk trial.]( Nvm Adobe scraps its $20B Figma deal as mergers and breakups spike at year’s end A flaw in the design… Photoshop maker [Adobe]( announced yesterday that it was [scrapping]( its $20B takeover of rival web-based design platform Figma. The two companies are abandoning the deal after antitrust scrutiny from EU, UK, and US regulators became insurmountable. Critics of the merger drew parallels to Facebook’s 2012 purchase of what could’ve been a future competitor, Instagram, for $1B. - Future planning: Figma holds a larger share of the market for collaborative-design software than Adobe’s XD, and regulators didn’t love the idea of a company buying up its competition. - Copy-paste: On Sunday, biotech company Illumina canned its merger with cancer-test maker Grail after courts held up an FTC ruling. Earlier this month, Cigna was said to have abandoned its attempt to buy Humana in the face of potential regulator ire. Deal or no deal… Yesterday wasn’t all losses for M&A. $40B+ in deals were announced on the year’s final Merger Monday, including a $14B takeover of US Steel by Nippon Steel. That’s a turnaround from what’s been a largely muted year. Before yesterday, US mergers were down 16% as the Biden admin’s antitrust efforts made for choppy waters. Regulators stalled out JetBlue’s $3.8B deal to buy Spirit Airlines, while other major takeovers like Kroger’s $25B bid for Albertsons and Microsoft’s $69B Activision Blizzard deal continue to tread water. THE TAKEAWAY More cars on the road could mean more tickets… and the merger cops have been busy. The FTC and DOJ filed a record 50 actions to fix or block mergers in their most recent fiscal year. But last year’s 3.2K deals were also a near record — hitting the second-highest # in nearly half a century. Now antitrust is clarifying its rules: the final version of the Biden admin’s new merger guidelines, which lay the groundwork for tougher crackdowns on tech deals, was released yesterday. What else we're Snackin' - [Unafraid]( The Volatility Index, aka the stock market’s “fear gauge,” dropped to its lowest level since early 2020 (y’know, prepandemic). That could spur dealmaking (think: IPOs, M&A) and investing. - [Lobby]( Coinbase and other industry giants have given $78M to crypto-friendly super PACs in the past three months, Axios reported. The spend’s designed to support pro-crypto candidates in next year’s elections. - [CGWhy]( Video-effects artists at Lightstorm (think: “Avatar”) filed to hold a vote to unionize for stronger benefits and pay. Disney’s and Marvel’s VFX artists unionized this year, as labor standards get an overhaul. - [Mods]( OpenAI is restructuring the team that tries to prevent its AI tools from spewing misinfo. Wired [reported]( that Microsoft’s chatbot (built on OpenAI’s tech) responded to election questions with conspiracies. - [Step]( Apple will stop selling Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches in the US, following a ruling that they violated medical co Masimo’s patent. The watches will stay in stores through December 24, softening any holiday-sales impacts. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day Last year, a record 58% of US households owned stocks [Read more]( Tuesday - Housing starts - Earnings expected from Accenture, FactSet, FedEx, and Steelcase Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Alphabet, Apple, Disney, and Microsoft Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... [See more]( [Sherwood Terms and Conditions]( • [Our Editorial Principles]( • [Contact Us](mailto:hellosnacks@sherwoodmedia.com) • [Privacy Policy]( • [Advertise with us](mailto:advertising@sherwoodmedia.com) [Unsubscribe](