Hello and Happy International Women's Day! While huge strides have been made towards equality since IWD began in 1911, women still spend ~3x more time on unpaid care work than men, equivalent to 40% of GDP if assigned a monetary value. Today we're exploring:

• Home economics: 4 reflections on the US economy.
• Low fashion: Stitch Fix lost some of its glamor.
• Split screen: 2023 saw even fewer women in leading movie roles.

State of the (economic) union

President Biden delivered a surprisingly fiery State of the Union address yesterday, as he ramps up efforts to secure a second term in office. But, politics aside, what is the current state of the economic union? Here are 4 datasets we’re watching:

1. Inflation. The Big I — the economic elephant in every room for the last 3 years is finally shrinking, with the latest BLS data showing that prices were up 3.1% in January, down substantially from the ~9% annual increases seen in mid-2022.
2. Housing affordability. As interest rates rose, so did mortgage rates. However, house prices in most towns and cities have continued to soar, leaving first-time buyers facing high borrowing costs and steep prices — combining for one of the least affordable housing markets in modern history.
3. Stocks. Repeat after me: stock markets are not the economy... but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. With the S&P 500 Index already climbing ~9% this year, millions of Americans might be feeling a little more secure in their savings or retirement plans (particularly if they own Nvidia stock).
4. Wages. Getting a 5% raise when inflation is hitting nearly double that figure left many of us still finding our larger paychecks don't stretch as far as they once did. This was the case in 2021 and 2022 when wages struggled to keep up with inflation; however, as the rate of price increases began to slow last year, real hourly compensation finally turned positive.

With every passing month, the US economy appears to have increasingly pulled off the “soft-landing” that economists so desired when the Federal Reserve began its battle against inflation back in March 2022. Interestingly, the economy is no longer seen as the most important issue facing Americans, having been overtaken by immigration in the latest Gallup survey.

Unstitched

‍Online personal stylist specialist Stitch Fix saw shares fall more than 17% earlier this week in the wake of another disappointing earnings report for the clothing company.

Although Stitch Fix has been using algorithms and machine learning to help select and ship boxes of clothes to customers since long before the AI hype train left the station, the company has seen its users dwindle, as revenues shrink and the struggle for profitability continues.

‍Out of style

‍Indeed, active clients in the most recent quarter had fallen some 33% from their 2022 peak, with just 2.8 million users having bought a box (or “Fix”) from the company in the last year. While Stitch Fix, like a handful of its competitors in the apparel space, is likely suffering from the post-pandemic shift in spending from goods to experiences, there could be even more at play behind its struggles.

Even though the company's clothing subscription service was a novel model when it first launched in 2011, it’s somewhat at odds with the new emphasis on making eco-conscious, sustainable fashion choices that’s been supercharged by Gen Z in recent years, as many modern shoppers look to pre-owned platforms like Depop, ThredUp, and eBay to get their online fashion fixes.

Pink slipped

‍As the red carpet rolls out for the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, some might still be reeling from Barbie — the fuchsia phenomenon that ruled last summer’s box office — being snubbed in several nomination categories on the illustrious honors list, including best director and best actress. Regardless of whether you agree with the omissions (Barbie still scooped a coveted best picture nomination), the flick spearheaded Hollywood’s ‘pink wave’ in 2023, having grossed a mind-boggling $1.4 billion in theaters worldwide.  

But widespread Barbie-mania may have obscured a notable decline in female representation on the silver screen: researchers at USC Annenberg found that 2023 marked a low point for women in film, with just 30 of the year’s top 100 highest-grossing films featuring women and girls in lead and co-lead roles, down from 44 the year before and the lowest figure seen in nearly 10 years.

‍Mixed pictures

‍Zooming in, cinema’s gender disparity becomes even more defined in older actor demographics. Indeed, of 2023’s 100 top-grossing movies, 32 featured men aged 45+ in lead/co-lead roles, compared to just 3 featuring women aged 45 and older — 7 fewer than in 2022. Behind the camera, a similar trend is observable: only 22% of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers on the 250 highest-grossing films of 2023 were women.

More Data

• Ad-mad: Chinese e-commerce giant Temu was Meta’s biggest advertiser last year by some distance, splashing out ~$2 billion across Zuck’s platforms.

• Miami Beach is cracking down on raucous spring break behavior this year, introducing curfews, bag searches, and DUI checkpoints.

• Novo Nordisk overtook Tesla to become the world’s 12th most valuable company by market cap yesterday, with shares rising 10% on news of the drugmaker’s offering that could be potentially more powerful than Wegovy and Ozempic.

Hi-Viz

• Statistically exploring the greatest year in Oscars history.

‍Off the charts: Which movie star, who’s (somewhat controversially) never been nominated for an Oscar, was just ranked as the top-earning actor of 2023 by Forbes? [Answer below].

Answer here.