The Daily Money: Why you should wrap up holiday shopping ASAP

ALL THE MONEY NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Wednesday, November 30

Happy Wednesday, Daily Money readers. It's Bailey Schulz here to bring you today's news.

This might be the year to get your holiday shopping done early.

Experts say holiday shopping could literally go off the rails this year, thanks to a potential rail strike coupled with trucking and labor shortages, soaring diesel prices and inflation.

A potential railroad strike on Dec. 9 is expected to disrupt supply chains and put pressure on U.S. goods inflations. Some analysts estimate it could cost the U.S. economy $2 billion a day.

No major shortages are expected, but some food items may be missing for short periods of time. Retailers are urging customers to buy and ship gifts as early as possible.

The latest on FTX

The FTX saga continues.

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi on Monday sued Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a holding company for crypto exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, to recover Robinhood shares pledged as collateral shortly before FTX filed for bankruptcy.

The lawsuit against Emergent came the same day BlockFi filed for bankruptcy. The lender says its exposure to FTX caused a liquidity crisis and cited the crypto exchange as a "major cause" of its chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Axios reports that Bankman-Fried – once one of the richest people in the world – is down to his last $100,000 after the rapid failure of FTX.

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🛍️ Shopping stats 🛍️

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, a record 196.7 million American consumers shopped in stores and online – 17 million more people than last year, according to a report by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Here are some highlights from the report:

•	Half of the shoppers surveyed bought clothing and accessories, while 31% bought toys and 27% purchased gift cards.
•	Shoppers spent an average of $325 on holiday-related purchases from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
•	The top spending categories were apparel and accessories, toys and gift cards.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from USA TODAY. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: How decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.

You can follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter @bailey_schulz and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter here for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.

UPS driver Joe Speeler makes a delivery at the Leanon Shops in Mount Lebanon, Pa., on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. United Parcel Service said Wednesday, Sept 7, 2022, it plans to hire more than 100,000 extra workers to help handle an increase in packages during the critical holiday season. Thatâ€™s similar to the holiday seasons of 2021 and 2020. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Supply chain worries persist, but don't let them upend your holiday...

Persistent supply chain worries, including a potential rail strike, continue to hang over the holidays. What you can do to keep it from upending plans