2023 In Charts

It's the year... in charts. TOGETHER WITH Today's Topics Hello! It’s that time of year again, when the Chartr team opens up the archives and scrolls through the record 530+ visuals that we made this year, to bring you: 2023 in charts. We hope you enjoy this whistle-stop tour of some of the biggest stories across business, tech, entertainment, and society. Today's final newsletter of the year is sponsored by our friends at [Percent]( — who are unlocking private credit for main street investors.* [Read this on the web instead]( Holiday housekeeping: We’d like to wish everyone reading a wonderful holiday season, and thank you for charting with us this year — we’ll be back in your inbox on January 3rd, 2024… which is set to be our biggest year ever. Coming in… softly? As we entered 2023, there was a lot for markets to be nervous about: inflation was running hot, the corporate world was still adjusting to what post-Covid work looked like, and economists were rolling out their favorite words — “it depends” — when asked whether the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes would send the economy into a recession. But the latest data seems to suggest that Jay Powell and co. might have pulled it off — indicating at the Fed’s final monetary policy meeting that they are more likely to be cutting interest rates than hiking them next year. Indeed, the recession that so many expected to come… hasn’t shown up. Say no more The slightest mention of rate cuts has been enough to send traders into a buying frenzy, with US stocks up 14% since the end of October, taking the total gains for the S&P 500 Index to a whopping +25% on the year. A substantial portion of that rally was because big tech was feeling much more like its 2020/21 self, as some of the biggest tech stocks posted massive year-to-date gains (Alphabet +58%, Amazon +81%, Apple +58%, Tesla +137%) — but none more so than Nvidia, which had one of the best years in corporate history. AI’s arrival Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed this year that the tech giant had endured a watershed moment in 2018, deciding — in his words — to “bet the company”, [doubling down]( on building innovative graphics processing units (GPUs) that would become the building blocks for some of the most disruptive software ever built: generative artificial intelligence. The reward for that bold vision? Soaring GPU sales and a stock price that’s up 247% this year — taking Nvidia into the rarefied air of the $1 trillion market cap club. Although ChatGPT was launched at the end of last year, 2023 was undoubtedly the year that AI tools burst into the mainstream, with students, creative artists, accountants, lawyers, coders, major enterprises, and even criminals finding ways to use the burgeoning set of tools. The chatbot soared to a million users in just 5 days, hitting the 100 million user milestone a mere 2 months after its launch. For perspective, Instagram took ~15x as long to reach that benchmark, and Spotify took around 4-and-a-half years. Ignoring [Meta's Threads]( which leveraged its Instagram user base, no product has ever grown at such a rapid pace. Throw in a little [boardroom drama]( plus a few doomsday “end of the world” quotes about AI, and you’ve had quite the year. Stoppage time While robots have been rising up, American workers have been [increasingly]( [downing]( [tools]( this year: strikes and lockouts have blighted multiple major industries, with several high-profile wins for trade unions commanding, among other stipulations, protection from AI, better benefits, and bigger pay packets. The unions strike back Even though private sector union membership has been plummeting [for decades]( with just 6% of American workers belonging to an organized group last year, data from the Labor Department reveals that October 2023 saw more days lost to work stoppages than any single month since the [early 1980s](. The 4.4 million days lost to stoppages in October alone — calculated using the number of workers involved in strikes/lockouts multiplied by the total workdays that each stoppage stretched over — added to an already massive year for striking in the US, totaling ~17 million lost workdays as of November. Even Hollywood didn’t escape strike fever: the 4-month-long WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, the first joint [writers-and-actors strike]( in 60 years and the longest actors’ strike in history, was estimated to have cost California’s economy almost $5bn. [Sponsored by Percent]( Private credit investors are getting ahead for 2024 Why are execs like Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray talking about [private credit]( It’s a multi trillion-dollar market that has grown by >800% since 2006. Projections for the next 5 years show private credit returns increasing — and, by investment giant KKR’s estimates, it’ll significantly outpace the S&P 500. Private credit is typically out of reach for main street investors — but not anymore. By connecting accredited investors with corporate borrowers, [Percent]( offers access to a variety of high-yield offerings that can mature in months, and has paid investors $37M+ in interest to date. [Invest from $500]( and unlock yields up to 20% APY. Interested? Chartr readers can earn up to a $500 bonus with their 1st investment. [Get exclusive private credit deals with Percent]( Barbio Even with strike-imposed restrictions on some movie promotions in the latter half of the year, moviemakers had a solid 2023, with a few serious standouts. Paint it pink This year, the box office got all dolled up, with Barbie running away to become the highest-grossing movie of 2023, taking a staggering $636 million in the US, more than $1.4 billion worldwide, and breaking several cinematic records in [the process](. There were other familiar franchises leading this year’s movie rankings, with Super Mario, Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy all smashing it on the silver screen. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer — the 3-hour biopic that, alongside Barbie, delivered a [chart-worthy boost]( to the US box office when the movies debuted on the same weekend in July — rounded out the top 5, taking $326 million in 150 days. In recovery While the box office may still be suffering a little from an ongoing case of sequelitis, with at least 5 of the top 10 films of 2023 being out-and-out reboots or follow-ups, the symptoms aren’t as intense as they were when we wrapped up the state of cinema [in 2022](. Domestic theater takings are recovering more generally too, with nearly $8.5 billion grossed so far in 2023 — the healthiest showing since the pandemic, according to [Box Office Mojo]( numbers. Climate, changed In environmental news, headlines were dominated by record-shattering measurements, as [global temperatures soared](. Collectively, we watched an unusually [warm January]( transition into a series of [extreme weather events]( in the spring — including ice storms, tornadoes, and cyclones — seeing all-time high ocean temps swelter through the [hottest summer]( in recent history. Then, on July 6th, instruments [measured]( the global surface average air temperature at 17.08°C — the world’s warmest day on record. As the scorching summer fueled [catastrophic wildfires]( the world over, burning 18 million hectares of land in Canada alone, exceptionally high temperatures persisted into the El Niño-impacted [autumn]( and [winter]( months — leading [scientists]( to conclude that 2023 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record. Fever pitches 2023’s startling temperatures did propel some change on global [climate policy]( international summits such as COP28 paved the way for a fossil fuel phase-down (even if a full [phase-out]( is yet to be promised). Honorable mentions Sadly, this email can only hold so many charts without breaking your inbox — some honorable mentions from our charting this year: • 2023 (Taylor’s Version): It's been an enchanted year for Taylor Swift: kicking off the record-shattering Eras Tour; releasing 2 [chart-storming]( re-recorded albums; becoming a billionaire while boosting the US economy by an estimated $5.7bn; being named [TIME’s Person of the Year]( and holding Spotify’s top spot as the [most-streamed artist]( globally. • Home truths: With US mortgage rates only recently dropping from [towering highs]( and prices remaining stubbornly high, would-be-buyers have faced the [least affordable housing market]( in decades. • Inflates rates: Following a year of [pumped-up prices]( inflation has finally begun to [ease]( moving into 2024. But, even if the rate of price hikes is slowing, prices are still way above 2020 levels — taking a toll on many deflated Americans, who’ve seen sizable hikes to [olive oil]( [healthcare]( and even [tooth fairy]( fees. • Commuter times: Back-to-office orders are this year’s TL;DR take away from the world of work, as employees and employers made their cases in the debate. US [office occupancy]( was creeping up over 50% in February, but there remained a deep mismatch between [demand and supply]( for remote work. • Stream of the crop: Streaming revolutionized how we entertain ourselves, but this year it started to look a little more like the cable packages of old, as explored in our [Streamonomics]( deep dive. The space got even more crowded, leading to [multiservice mergers]( [cancellations]( and a [power struggle]( for subscribers’ attention spans. [Sponsored by Percent]( Credit where credit’s due Investment magnate KKR forecasts S&P 500 returns dropping to 5.3% over the next 5 years. Meanwhile, private credit returns are estimated to rise to 8.3% for the same period. Thanks to [Percent]( main street investors are now getting the credit they deserve. It’s the dedicated [platform for private credit deals]( that can mature in less than a year, and have historically generated yields of up to 20% APY. Start investing in private credit from $500, with Percent. That's all folks — see you in '24. [Read or share this story on the web]( *Sponsored by Percent. Thanks for reading. See you next year! Have some [feedback](mailto:daily@chartr.co?subject=Feedback&body=Hi%2C%0A%0AI%20like%20the%20newsletters%2C%20but%20I%20had%20a%20thought%20for%20you...) or want to [sponsor]( this newsletter? Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below. [Subscribe]( Copyright © 2023 CHARTR LIMITED, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. 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