Hard Numbers: Cybertruck explosion outside Trump hotel, German fireworks-linked arrests, S&P 500 gains, Crypto loss suspect extradited, Costlier drugs
1: A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, killing the driver and injuring several others. Authorities said the vehicle pulled up right to the “glass entrance doors of the hotel," and they are reportedly investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.
400: Germans love to set off fireworks in the street to ring in the New Year. But this year, some of these celebrations turned ugly as fireworks were used to attack police officers and firefighters. In Berlin, 30 emergency officials were injured, leading to 400 arrests.
23.3: For the second year running, the US S&P 500 index rose more than 20%, ending 2024 up 23.3%. This neared the 24.2% gain of 2023 and finished the strongest two-year period for the blue-chip stocks this century. Last year’s rise was fueled largely by big tech stocks, particularly those linked to AI, with chipmaker Nvidia’s shares gaining a whopping 172% over the past year.
40,000,000,000: The man suspected of causing roughly $40 billion in crypto market losses in 2022 has been extradited to the United States. On Tuesday, Montenegro sent Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, a South Korean national, to the US to face charges of having deceived investors about the TerraUSD cryptocurrency’s stability.
250: The New Year means new prices for at least 250 medicines, including COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid and Bristol Myers Squibb’s cancer cell therapies, according to research by the firm 3 Axis Advisors. Most of the price rises are below 10%, with the median being 4.5%.