Five interesting things that Hodges Capital research analysts discovered this week...

#1 TRICK OR TREAT: According to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation, consumers plan to spend an average of $103.63 on Halloween, which is about 4% less than last year. Spending on costumes is expected to reach $3.8 billion, with children preferring Spider-Man, ghosts, princesses, witches, and other superheroes as their favorite costumes.

#2 SELF-DRIVING: Statista recently reported that two-thirds of U.S. drivers over the age of 18 said they felt afraid regarding self-driving vehicles, up from 54% in 2021. Only 9% said they felt trust in them, down from 14% three years ago.

#3 EMPLOYEE TENURE: The latest BLS data on employee tenure shows that the percentage of employees aged 25 and over who have been with their current employer for 10 years or more fell to 30%. This is down 3 percentage points from only a decade ago. Job movers are seeing better wage gains, driving the median years of tenure at a current employer to 3.9 years, representing the lowest figure on record in 22 years.

#4 AUTO INSURANCE: According to the Car Dealership Guy, auto insurance rates in the U.S. have increased by 52% since 2022, with premiums now averaging $2,329 annually.

#5 DEMOGRAPHICS: The 2024 Revision of World Population Prospects projects that the world’s population is likely to peak within 50 to 60 years at around 10.3 billion people, up from 8.2 billion today. Additionally, one in four people globally lives in a country whose population has already peaked in size.

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