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Working Lunch Thursday, December 26, 2024 | | |
| | | | | It's lunchtime, Chicago. Sales rose this year during the holiday shopping season despite the fact that Americans faced elevated prices for many groceries and other necessities, according to new data. Holiday sales from the beginning of November through Christmas
Eve climbed 3.8%, outpacing the 3.1% increase from a year earlier, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards. The last five days of the season accounted for 10% of the spending. And, instead of building a small-scale quantum computer designed primarily for testing and public demonstrations, PsiQuantum, the anchor tenant at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, is shooting for
the moon with a 1 million-quantum-bit machine capable of tackling practical, real-world applications. It’s a future that even leading scientists
aren’t sure is possible. But PsiQuantum co-founder Pete Shadbolt intends to prove that it is. Read that story and more in today's Working Lunch. Get news alerts | Top business stories | Real estate | | | | Sales rose this year during the holiday shopping season even as Americans wrestled with elevated prices for many groceries and other necessities. | | | | | If successful, quantum computing is expected to address problems like climate change. But huge engineering obstacles remain. | | | | | State is third in the country, behind California and New York, with school districts committing to about 700 school buses. | | | | | Researchers wondered if they could ease some of those symptoms — and improve the kids’ well-being — by teaching them breathing and singing techniques as part of a choir. | | | | | U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. | | | |
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