The cafe where you once almost spilled a broccoli cheddar bread bowl onto your laptop wants to go public: Panera Bread has confidentially filed IPO paperwork, the Financial Times reported yesterday. And it’s not the only household name that’s anticipated to hit brokerage apps next year as more companies are once again considering going public.

The past two years have been an IPO ice age as rising interest rates led to a tepid market for newcomers. Last year, Panera itself aborted a public listing it was planning via a special purpose acquisition company due to harsh market conditions.

Things might be different in 2024: Fast-fashion behemoth Shein also recently filed paperwork for what could be a blockbuster IPO that raises as much as $90 billion, per Bloomberg. The publication says that more companies are rumored to be thinking about joining the potential IPO bonanza…

• Kim Kardashian might list her $4 billion undergarment brand, Skims.
• Soon, Reddit may not only host r/wallstreetbets but also get hyped on it, as it’s supposedly flirting with the idea of going public. It would be the first major social media IPO in years, and it’s been in the offing since last year, when Reddit was valued at $15 billion.

But it’s been rough out there

This fall, even the much-awaited Birkenstock and Instacart IPOs fell short of expectations. According to investment data from Dealogic…

• Three out of four companies that IPOed this year were trading below their offer prices as of the middle of last month.
• Companies debuting on the public markets raised a meager $20 billion so far this year, a slight rebound from 2022 but a ~90% decline from 2021.

Already listed stocks are rallying, though…stocks had their best month of the year in November, and investors are relieved that the Federal Reserve has signaled that it’s done raising interest rates.—SK

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Santos is out. Congress lost its most fashionable representative yesterday when the House voted 311–114 to expel New York Republican George Santos in the wake of an Ethics Committee report saying he spent donor cash on personal expenses such as designer duds and OnlyFans. The ouster of the fabulation-prone congressman—who is also facing federal indictments and has been accused of inventing most of his biography—is only the sixth in history (and three of those were related to the Civil War). The expulsion narrows the Republicans’ already slim majority in the chamber. Defiant even after the vote, Santos told reporters, “Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place.”

Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has died at 93. O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a major conservative judicial voice for moderation, died yesterday from complications of dementia and respiratory illness. Appointed to the high court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, O’Connor is best known for taking positions that preserved Roe v. Wade (which has since been overturned), weighing the scope of permissible affirmative action, and joining in the majority that ruled to halt the vote recount in Florida in Bush v. Gore. She retired in 2005 to care for her husband, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Jerome Powell said rate cut talk is “premature.” With the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes to curb inflation looking like they’ve finally come to an end thanks to encouraging data on prices falling, investors are starting to look forward to when the central bankers start slashing rates again. But JPow sought to pour some cold water on the rate cut hype cycle during a speech at Spelman College yesterday, saying that it was too soon “to speculate on when policy might ease.” However, investors still think he’ll come around: Markets are putting the odds that the Fed will cut rates in March above 50% and are totally convinced it’ll happen by May, according to Bloomberg.

The world’s biggest cocoa producers are down bad due to ruinous rains and crop disease, and it’s sending chocolate prices as high as the heavens that Ferrero Rocher truffles supposedly fall from.

Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together grow ~60% of the cocoa on Earth, are both expecting their lowest yields in years. With the current harvest failing to meet demand for the third year in a row—and future seasons looking equally grim—the coveted candy ingredient is trading at its steepest price since 1979. A simultaneous sugar shortage is making matters worse:

• The rising cost of your chocolate fix is outpacing food inflation and will continue to do so in 2024, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
• That’s on top of the 20% price hike companies already slapped on their chocolate goods in the US over the past two years to combat general inflation, per Everstream Analytics.

It’s starting to show. Chocolate giants Barry Callebaut, Lindt & Sprüngliare, Hershey, and Mondelēz are all suffering from flat or falling sales as consumers in the US and Europe (even in Switzerland) spite their sweet tooth to save their wallet.—ML

The NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament is heading to the knockout round next week. And after a month of games meant to help bolster midseason viewership, we can confidently announce the MVP of the tourney: the wild court designs.

In addition to new jerseys and more stats for the people at ESPN to use in their monologues, the NBA gifted the world 30 funky court designs—one for each team in the league. They have been met with…divided feedback. Even Dallas Mavericks (soon-to-be former) owner Mark Cuban said, “Not a fan of the courts, although it was a brilliant marketing idea.”

Why the courts are so wild: Just like a mid-2000s rom-com lead trying to get their crush’s attention, the NBA wore its most unhinged outfits. While normal NBA courts are typically barebones, the special in-season courts are fully painted in each team’s colors. The league admitted that the glaringly bold courts are meant to grab fans’ attention and help the tournament stand out from regular games.

And it’s working: According to Sports Business Journal, NBA games in November garnered 1.48 million average viewers on ESPN and TNT, up 19% from the same time last year. That’s especially good news for team owners, since the league’s lucrative media rights will be up for grabs after next season.—MM

Stat: The workforce is so mother right now—over the last 20 years, the employment rate for college-educated mothers of young children has jumped 10 percentage points, according to a new working paper by Wharton researchers. “You don’t often see such striking trends in labor data,” the lead researcher told Axios. However, the paper notes that moms without higher ed degrees haven’t seen the same uptick in employment, in part because jobs that don’t require those credentials are often less flexible.

Quote: “We’re going to do it as quickly as we can because, at our age, we don’t have a lot of time to waste.”

The Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner has not only handed out his final rose, he’s also probably ordering a lot more flowers for a wedding next month to his choice (spoiler alert), Theresa Nist. At 72 and 70, respectively, Turner and Nist aren’t spending a year putting the big event together because, as Turner told the show’s host, they’re not looking to wait around. But the pair are likely to get some help creating a day worthy of the storied television franchise on which they met: The couple will marry during an ABC special on January 4.

Read: “I was told not to make eye contact with Tom Cruise”: Meet the world’s most prolific film extra. (The Guardian)

Get gas in style: America’s grandest filling stations.

Watch: Perfecting the chocolate chip cookie.

Look fancy: X’s menswear guy breaks down “bespoke.”

Stay on track: NORAD’s annual Santa tracker is back up and running. And here’s the history of how it all started with a wrong number in 1955.

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