1. Underweight U.S. Equity Exposure from Fund Managers
Fund managers are the most underweight equities since May 2023. Even after the recent run, their allocations have not budged.
Bol
2. Healthcare Sector Sentiment Record Lows
Via Barron’s: Jason Goepfert, founder and senior research analyst at SentimenTrader, notes that the ratio of the price of the healthcare index relative to the S&P 500 fell more than 35% from its most recent high, something that had only occurred seven times before over the past 100 years. That type of relative decline has typically been a good time to buy the sector, which has averaged a return of 17% over the subsequent 12 months.
But wait, there’s more. The Health Care ETF traded at a new 52-week low on May 15 before rallying to finish the day above the previous day’s high. That, too, is a rare occurrence—it’s happened just four other times since the ETF’s inception in 2000. Once again, returns have been quite good. The ETF has averaged a 21% rise over the 12 months following the signal, according to SentimenTrader data, including a 46% rise after getting triggered in 2009. That, too, suggests the sector is oversold and primed for a rally. “Trends in the sector are so bad that they indicate washout conditions, and investors seem to sense snapback potential,” Goepfert writes.
XLV Healthcare ETF Closes Below 200-Week Moving Average on Long-Term Chart
StockCharts
3. IBM Making New Highs
StockCharts
4. S&P Stocks with Dividend Yields Higher than 10-Year Treasury
At the moment, there are 40 S&P 500 stocks with higher dividend yields than the 10-year yield, and we list them below. Two Materials stocks top the list with 9%+ dividend yields and over 20% declines on the year.
Bespoke
5. Carbon Capture is Big Business
Ready, offset, go: Carbon capture is becoming a big business. Some of the world’s largest (and top-polluting) companies have come to rely on carbon offsets to hit net-zero targets. At present, these offsets are mostly natural solutions like tree-planting projects, but there’s been a huge upswing in CCS systems recently.
Last month, The IEA reported that while the first quarter of 2025 saw over 50 million metric tons of CO2 capture and storage capacity in operation, capacity is projected to grow strongly, reaching ~430 million metric tons by 2030.
A major driving force behind the surge in CCS developments is the eye-watering growth of Big Tech. According to analysis from Carbon Brief, tech companies like Microsoft and Apple generally use higher proportions of removal-based offsets than other industries like oil or airlines, and demand has only increased as these giants have gone all in on energy-guzzling data centers to power AI.
In its global carbon markets outlook for 2025, Bloomberg outlined that new contracted volumes of carbon removal credits increased by 74% last year, predicted that they’ll double this year, and detailed that Microsoft alone bought nearly two-thirds of new contracts last year, or ~5.1 million carbon removal credits.
6. Trump Announces 25-Year Plan to Accelerate Nuclear—Uranium a Couple Ticks from Break-Out to New Highs
StockCharts
7. Big Financials vs. Small Cap Banks….51% Spread in Returns Since Jan 2022
ConvertBond
8. Mortgage Rates 3-Year Range
Abnormal Returns
9. Best 50 Places to Work in America
Visual Capitalist
10. This Is Your Job Right Now
Via The Daily Stoic: It’s depressing. It’s confusing. It’s fraught. You don’t like where the world is going. You don’t like what’s happening.
What are we supposed to do? Especially when we are so powerless, as ordinary citizens, people who do not hold office, especially when we are matched against billionaires, against madness, against inertia, against so much.
“Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being,” Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, in reaction, it must be said, against his own dysfunctional and cruel times. “Remind yourself what nature demands of people,” he added. “Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it.”
We are not emperors. We are not senators. But we are human beings, connected to all other human beings. Our job is to do our job—to do it virtuously and honestly. Our job as citizens is to participate in politics—not to cede the field simply because it disappoints and disgusts us. Our job is to help the people we can help closest to us—those who have lost their jobs, those who have been targeted, those who do not have the advantages we have.
And most of all, per the tradition of the Stoic Opposition (which included hallowed figures like Cato and Helvidius and Thrasea and Rutilius Rufus), is to courageously speak the truth as we see it. To not go along with lies. To call things what they are. To condemn what deserves condemnation. To stand up for principles and programs that deserved defense. To say who we are, which is good, which is kind, which is very much not on board with any of this and that even if we can’t stop it, we can say clearly and loudly that we do not accept it being done in our name.
3. 85% of Global Foreign Exchange Transactions in U.S. Dollars
Cresset Capital
4. Smartphone Shipments to China Drop to 2011 Levels
Sherwood
5. Gold vs. 20-Year Treasury Bond ETF
The Market Ear
6. Hedge Funds Shorting Heavy Again
MarketWatch
7. Uranium Held 2023 Low…+25% in One Month
StockCharts
8. U.S. Housing Shortage Over? Listings Have Tripled Since 2022
Via Zach Goldberg Jefferies: With resale inventory on the U.S. Housing Market hitting nearly 1 million listings this spring. Listings bottomed in April 2022 at around 379k. Since then, they have nearly tripled. To the highest level of supply since 2019. Redfin: U.S. home prices ticked down -0.05% in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, the first month-over-month decline since September 2022 according to the Redfin Home Price Index (RHPI), which uses the repeat-sales pricing method to calculate seasonally adjusted changes in prices of single-family home. April marked only the third time that the RHPI has posted a month-over-month decline, with the other months—August and September in 2022—coming after a series of rapid interest rate rises. It’s worth noting that April’s decline (-0.05%, rounded to -0.1%) is minor and that RHPI data is subject to revision.
9. A 56-year-old Personal Trainer on how to Build Muscle after 40 — with Rucking, Bodyweight, and Short Workouts
A personal trainer in his 50s got back in shape after colon cancer treatment with simple workouts.
His routine includes rucking, walking with a weighted pack to build muscle and endurance in less time.
He recommends shorter, more consistent workouts instead of exhausting yourself for long-term gains.
Via Business Insider: Shorter workouts could be the key to getting in shape and staying that way into your 50s and beyond, according to a personal trainer who learned to work smarter instead of harder.
Bill Maeda, 56, said recovering from a health crisis taught him that short, simple, and consistent is key to building muscle and fitness long-term.
“My raw horsepower is less than it was 10 or more years ago, but I don’t care,” he told. “The difference is now, I’m moving better, and it’s fun.”
Inspired by Bruce Lee to start training at 8 years old, Maeda had been a personal trainer for decades, even landed a few movie roles with his muscular physique. But in 2012, he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in his early 40s, requiring major emergency surgery and half a year of chemotherapy.
Recovering from cancer made him realize that focusing on his physique over his health was like building a nice car without proper brakes or steering.
“I wanted a strong frame. I wanted a powerful engine, but I spent so much time building this car, I forgot how to drive it. That’s what I’m doing now,” he said.
Maeda slowly rebuilt his fitness, one rep at a time, and said shorter and simpler can be better for long-term gains.
Build a foundation on the basics: deadlifts, squats, push-ups
Maeda’s current workouts on social media often feature unusual exercises, but he said most people shouldn’t do complicated workouts unless they’ve mastered the basics. You don’t need elaborate movement to build muscle, and the risk of injury can increase as an exercise become more intricate.
“Well into my forties, I didn’t do anything fancy. It was deadlifts, squats, kettlebell swings, just a lot of very fundamental movements,” Maeda said. “Those are what built my physical base, what people see now, the muscle I carry.”
To gain muscle and strength, focus on progressive overload, performing the same exercises over time with gradually increasing weight.
From there, you can explore variations of exercise to keep workouts fun and challenging while improving mobility, agility, and balance.
“I do less of that heavy basic lifting because of the time I have now, I’d rather put it towards movements that spread the stress of what I’m doing more evenly throughout my body,” Maeda said.
Work out in less time by rucking
One regular part of Maeda’s fitness routine is rucking, or walking with weight. He typically carries a 45-pound backpack for 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week, while walking his dogs.
Working out too hard can backfire. A personal trainer shares 4 red flags and 4 green flags to optimize your routine.
He first starting rucking as he was slowly rebuilding his endurance after colon cancer. He began with short walks wearing a backpack full of bricks and added weight (and better gear through his partnership with fitness brand GORUCK) over time.
Building muscle and endurance comes from challenging your body over time. Rucking provides a convenient way to work the muscles during activities that are already a part of a routine, like walking dogs or taking a hike.
For Maeda, it added an extra challenge without taking more time out of his day.
“It got me to a point where just walking seemed like a total waste of time,” he said. “If I’m doing something that often and I can just put a 45-pound backpack on, that’s a lot of minutes under load.”
Ending a workout early can pay off
In his younger years, Maeda embraced the “no pain, no gain” mindset of tough exercise, but now warns against it
“I don’t personally recommend programs that are aggressive and based on sucking it up and willpower. Life is hard enough,” Maeda said.
He said it’s better not to be completely exhausted after exercise, so you’re energized and excited for the next workout, even if that means cutting your workout short.
“Consistency over days is way more important than a hard weekend warrior workout that means you’re sore for the rest of the week,” he said.
Try this no-equipment workout for beginners
Maeda recommends starting with a workout you can do at home.
To complete his “exercise ladder,” do:
one squat, one push-up;
two squats, two push-ups;
three squats, three push-ups;
continue up to five reps, or until the next set starts to feel daunting.
Over time, you can repeat the workout, aiming to reach a higher number of reps as you progress, or change up the exercises (doing lunges and pull-ups, or single-leg deadlifts and burpees).
10. 11 Personal Finance Goals for Your 40s
Via Art of Manliness: Years ago, we published articles on personal finance goals to strive for in your 20s and in your 30s.
Now that I’m in my 40s, I decided to revisit this series to see if I needed to update my financial goals in my first decade of midlife.
Your 40s are an interesting time, money-wise. Many men enter their peak earning years during this decade. Yet their expenses often increase significantly at the same time. High-school-aged kids may need cars, and those same teenagers may subsequently need help paying for college. Your parents are retiring and aging into their 70s, and you’re starting to think about what financial support they may require in the last decades of their lives. Meanwhile, your own retirement shifts from a distant abstraction into an approaching reality.
During this decade where you’re both starting to enjoy the fruits of your labors, but feeling the pressure of additional demands, you want to make moves to ensure you’re on stable ground now and in the future.
Below are 10 goals, backed by research and the advice of personal finance experts, that will help you not just survive your 40s, but thrive in that decade and in the decades to come:
1. Consider Consulting a Financial Advisor
With higher income and more responsibilities, your financial life is more complex in your 40s.
So consider hiring a fee-only financial advisor to help you navigate these complexities. Fee-only financial advisors don’t make money from selling financial products like insurance or mutual funds, reducing conflicts of interest.
You can pay a fee-only financial advisor by the hour to get advice on planning for retirement, paying for college and potential weddings, updating your estate plan, and reviewing insurance.
If you’re looking for more comprehensive guidance, you can set up an arrangement where the financial advisor gets a percentage of the assets they manage for you.
2. Maintain a Robust Emergency Fund (6–12 Months of Expenses)
By now, you should have a solid emergency fund. In your 40s, the goal is to increase its balance to match the expenses you likely have as a middle-aged man.
Aim for at least six months of essential expenses, or up to a year if you’re in a volatile industry or single-income household. Job hunts for people in their 40s often take longer than for those who are younger. If you were to lose your income, a six-month cash reserve ensures you can keep paying the mortgage and feeding the family while you find your next role. It also prevents you from raiding retirement accounts or going into debt.
Keep this fund in a liquid, low-risk account. Don’t touch it unless it’s a true emergency; replenish it as soon as possible if used.
3. Maximize Your Income
For many men, their 40s are the highest-earning decade of life. The median annual salary for men usually peaks between 45 and 54. Make it a goal to leverage these years as much as possible to set yourself up for true financial security.
To make the most of this decade, you’ll want to maximize your income.
Raises won’t usually fall into your lap. You’ll need to ask for them proactively.
If your boss won’t budge on giving you a raise, consider switching roles or even companies. Changing jobs mid-career can often substantially increase your salary, but so can moving up the ranks at your current job; be sure to check out our podcast on getting a promotion for some solid advice on how to continue to work your way toward the literal or metaphorical corner office.
Additionally, look into creating extra income streams through side businesses or freelancing. At this stage in your career, you probably have valuable expertise others will pay for. Consider moonlighting as a consultant. The extra income you earn now could even evolve into part-time work after you retire.
It’s worth noting that your 40s are not only peak earning years, but may be the last years you have your kids at home. You don’t want to be so focused on maximizing your income that you miss out on maximizing the time you spend with them before becoming an empty nester. It’s a tough line to walk, but strive to strike a balance between filling up your financial treasury, and your memory bank.
4. Avoid Lifestyle Creep
It’s natural to want to reward yourself as your income rises — to finally get that dream car, upgrade to a bigger house, or take more vacations. And you should allow yourself to start splurging a little more in your 40s; you’ve earned it by grinding through your 30s.
But don’t go overboard; every dollar spent on upgrading your lifestyle is one less dollar available for debt reduction or savings. Remember, too, that the cost of another car or a bigger house isn’t just the initial purchase price, but what it will cost you in maintenance, insurance, etc.
Start enjoying yourself more in your 40s, while saving enough to ensure that the next four to five decades are enjoyable as well.
5. Double-Down on Retirement Savings (Aim for 3X Your Salary)
In your 40s, retirement is no longer the abstract-seeming thing it was in your 20s. It will potentially be a concrete reality for you in twenty or so years.
Experts suggest having about three times your annual salary saved by age 40. Don’t worry if you’re not there yet — many aren’t — but use that benchmark to motivate you.
In your 40s, strive to save at least 15% of your income (ideally 20% or more) for retirement. As you save for retirement, take full advantage of tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.
How should you allocate your retirement savings in your 40s? When I put this question to personal finance expert Nick Maggiulli, he suggested that for many, it might mean reducing risk due to the increased liabilities they likely have in midlife: “In your 40s and 50s, you should consider reducing this risk to fit your liability profile better. For example, you could consider going from an 80/20 stock/bond portfolio to a 70/30 (or something similar). The key here is not maximizing your net worth, but maximizing your chance of long-term survival.”
6. Eliminate Non-Mortgage Debt and Work Toward Being Mortgage-Free
Ideally, you’ll have paid off all non-mortgage debt in your 30s. If you haven’t, make that a priority in your 40s. Aggressively tackle any lingering debts, like car loans and student loans.
Once you’ve eliminated all non-mortgage debt, start focusing on your mortgage. While you don’t necessarily need to pay it off during your 40s, you should have a clear plan for eliminating it as soon as financially feasible.
If you can swing it, start making extra principal payments. Even one extra payment a year (or adding, say, $200 extra each month) can knock years off a 30-year loan. Check with your lender that extra payments go toward the principal.
7. Bolster Kids’ College Funds (But Not at the Expense of Retirement)
In your 40s, your children may be in high school, and college costs are looming. Ideally, you started a 529 account for your kids in your 30s; if not, start one now. With 529 accounts, gains and distributions/withdrawals for education aren’t taxed.
As you save for your kids’ education, don’t do so at the expense of your retirement. Your retirement should always be the priority when saving. Your kids have options for education financing, but you don’t have one for retirement.
8. Plan for Aging Parents and Family Care Responsibilities
More than half of 40-somethings are either raising children under 18 or financially supporting adult children, and have at least one parent aged 65 or older. About a quarter of adults in their 40s and 50s actively provide financial assistance or regular care to their aging parents — a percentage that only increases as members of this “sandwich generation” and their parents grow older.
Prepare for a future with aging parents by talking to Mom and Dad about their financial health. Do they have sufficient retirement savings, a will, power of attorney, or healthcare directives? Knowing this upfront can prevent surprises during a crisis.
Second, discuss future care preferences. When their health declines, would your parents prefer living with family or moving into an assisted living facility? Clarifying this sets expectations and shapes future plans. If you have siblings, hold a meeting to define roles and discuss shared costs.
Finally, consider preparing financially by creating a “parent fund” for predictable expenses like medical bills or housing.
Check out the book Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances. I thought it had a lot of good advice.
9. Do an Insurance Check-up
If you bought term life insurance in your 30s (as we recommended), revisit your coverage. Major changes — like more kids, a bigger mortgage, or a higher income — might require additional coverage. A common guideline is 10–15X your annual salary, ensuring your family could replace your income if needed. Term policies are still affordable in your 40s (though premiums rise), so lock in coverage until kids graduate college and your mortgage is paid off.
Also consider umbrella insurance to protect accumulated wealth from liability lawsuits, and disability insurance to replace your income if you can’t work.
10. Do an Estate Plan Check-Up
You should have started your estate planning in your 30s; in your 40s, it’s time to do a check-up.
Revisit and update your will to reflect current realities, like new assets or guardians for your kids.
Double-check beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, insurance, and investments; these override your will, so accuracy is crucial.
Ensure you have durable powers of attorney (for financial decisions) and healthcare proxies, naming people you trust.
Explore advanced strategies like trusts or charitable giving if your estate is sizable.
Communicate with your spouse and estate executor about your plans and where key documents are stored.
11. Plan Your Next Chapter of Life
Having a clear retirement vision guides your financial choices today. Outline your ideal retirement. When will you retire? Where will you live? How will you spend your time? Cruising? Volunteering? Working part-time? Answers to these big-picture questions will shape how you save in your 40s.
Next, calculate your retirement “number.” Most aim for savings that generate 70–80% of pre-retirement income annually. Use retirement calculators or a financial planner to check your progress, adjusting your savings or expectations if needed.
Finally, prepare for potential healthcare costs. You might live into your 90s, so your savings could need to last over 30 years after you retire.
Your 40s are a busy and sometimes stressful decade, but with thoughtful planning and strategic actions, you can balance today’s demands with tomorrow’s dreams. Use these goals as your financial roadmap, and you’ll enter your 50s with confidence and clarity, knowing you’ve laid a strong foundation for the years ahead. I’ll see you in 10 years with an article on financial goals for that decade of life!
1. The Tech Industry is Huge and Europe’s Share is Very Small—”pubs in London’s financial district are usually full at 2 p.m. on Thursdays.”
Odenwald had spent nearly three decades working in California but hoped he could help build a European tech giant to compete with the Americans. He was shocked by what he saw. Colleagues lacked engineering skills. None of his team had stock options, reducing their incentive to succeed. Everything moved slowly. After two months, Odenwald quit and returned to California.
WSJ
2. S&P 500 +19% in 27 Trading Days …One of the Greatest Comebacks in Market History
In Rare Company”: The S&P 500 is up over 19% in the last 27 trading days, one of the greatest comebacks in stock market history.
Charlie Bilelo
What immediately jumps out when looking at that table of big short-term rallies?
With the exception of November-December 2008, all have occurred at the start of new bull markets, following historic bear market lows in…
3. No Idea What Shakes Out Here…But Interesting Chart
Netscape vs. ChatGPT. “The Nasdaq after the releases of Netscape versus ChatGPT continues to track eerily closely. Bulls should hope the trend remains because we’re still in 1997 on this analogue…”
Bespoke
4. Mega Cap AI Capital Spending Not Slowing Down
Bespoke
5. However Venture Different Story…New report shows the staggering AI cash surge — and the rise of the ‘zombiecorn’
Key Points
Silicon Valley Bank said in a report published on Tuesday that about 40% of the money raised by U.S. startups last year came from funds focused on AI.
Capital-intensive companies like OpenAI and Anthropic require billions of dollars to fuel their growth, but investors aren’t getting returns yet, and the IPO market has remained quiet.
Thus, there’s been an increase in the number of “zombiecorns,” or companies “with poor revenue growth and unit economics” that are struggling to raise money, the report said.
Via CNBC: Venture capital firms focused on artificial intelligence are driving much of the growth in the startup market, while companies in other areas are struggling to raise cash, according to a report from Silicon Valley Bank.
About 40% of the total amount raised by U.S. venture funds last year was from funds that “list AI as a focus,” SVB said in its “State of enterprise software” report published on Tuesday. That’s up from 10% in 2021. AI companies accounted for 45% of U.S. venture investment in enterprise software, jumping from 9% in 2022.
The dollars from AI megadeals — rounds of $100 million or greater — represented about half of all the money raised in the overall megadeal category. That’s a group that includes OpenAI and Anthropic.
“Exclude AI investment and the story changes,” the SVB report said. “There is no meaningful uptick for companies not leveraging AI, with investment from this group essentially flat for the last year.”
The challenge for the broader market is that exit activity remains tight, a theme that’s been in place since soaring inflation in late 2021 led to rising interest rates and a move out of risk.
Many investors were bullish that President Donald Trump’s return to the White House would reinvigorate the startup economy due to the prospect of lower taxes and less regulation, but the aggressive tariff policy announced in early April led several companies to delay planned IPOs.
The tech IPO market is showing signs of picking back up.
6. QQQ Short-Term Oversold to Overbought in One Month on RSI (arrows)
StockCharts
7. Analysts Stop Cutting Earnings Estimates
Sherwood
8. Retail Investors Still Underperform Even After Buying the Dip
SPACS R BACK – A new cast of boutique banks is fuelling a fresh fervour for blank-cheque companies — one of Wall Street’s hottest and most controversial products during the pandemic-era bull market. Special purpose acquisition vehicles, or Spacs, exploded in popularity during the Covid-19 crisis, with around 600 deals in the US raising a record $163bn in 2021 before the frenzy died down as global stocks tumbled the following year due to rising interest rates.
Dave Lutz at Jones Trading
But the market has revved up again since Donald Trump won his second term as president, despite volatility sparked by his tariffs delaying several traditional initial public offerings. There have been 44 Spac offerings this year raising $9bn, compared with 57 raising $9.6bn during the whole of 2024, Dealogic data shows. Four years ago, Credit Suisse, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Jefferies were among the busiest Spac advisers. But a cluster of lesser-known firms including Cohen & Company Capital Markets, D Boral Capital (The old EF Hutton), Clear Street and come to dominate the sector.
3. MegaCap Stocks Move Back into Lead…A Couple of Ticks from New Highs
StockCharts
4. MegaCap Led By MAG 7 Solid Earnings
The Market Fear
5. Since 1987 IPO FICO 3rd Best Performing Stock Behind MSFT and UNH
StockCharts
6. Mom and Pop Investors Reverse Yesterday’s 1% Pullback
Bloomberg
7. What Do Governments Spend Money On?
Our World in Data
8. Second Home Sales Slowdown Except for $10m Plus
John Burns
9. Qatar Population 2.5m -Largest Foreign Donor to American Higher Education
Google
10. It is What it Is: The Power of Withholding Judgement (Meaningful Money)
❝There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.❞ – William Shakespeare, Hamlet
You may have heard the old story about the Chinese farmer.
One day, his horse runs away. His neighbors come by and say, “What bad luck!”
The farmer simply replies, “Maybe.”
The next day, the horse returns with some friends—three wild horses.
“This is amazing!” the neighbors say.
“Maybe,” the farmer replies.
The following day, the farmer’s son tries to ride one of the wild horses, gets thrown off, and breaks his leg.
“Oh no, how terrible,” the neighbors say.
“Maybe,” says the farmer.
Then the army comes to town, drafting all the able-bodied young men. But because of the broken leg, the farmer’s son is spared.
“Wow, what good fortune!” the neighbors say.
“Maybe,” the farmer replies.
And on it goes.
We tend to label our experiences—this is good, that’s bad, this is unfair, that’s amazing. But the story of the farmer reminds us: it’s not always so clear.
Something that feels awful today might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Something that seems great could lead to pain later on. Sometimes we just don’t know yet.
Even deeper than that, maybe the idea of “good” or “bad” is just something we’ve made up. We naturally reach for what feels pleasant and push away what feels unpleasant. But what if things just… are?
There’s a phrase I used to hear growing up: “It is what it is.”
I hated it. It felt like giving up. If I said, “This sucks,” and a friend replied, “It is what it is,” I felt dismissed.
But as I’ve grown, I’ve realized it might hold more wisdom than I gave it credit for.
Maybe “it is what it is” is simply an invitation to not rush to judgment.
OUR JUDGMENT GLASSES
Here’s a simple truth: we’re always the main character in our own story.
If you’re watching a nature documentary and it follows a hungry lion, you might cheer when it finally catches an antelope. But if the next episode follows a lost antelope trying to survive, you’ll mourn when it gets eaten by a lion.
Same event. Different perspective.
The story changes depending on who you’re rooting for. That’s how we work too. When I land a new job, I celebrate. But for the person who was hoping to be promoted into that role? It’s a disappointment.
We see life through the lens of our own experience. It’s like we’re all wearing a pair of invisible judgment glasses—glasses that filter everything into good or bad. And most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re wearing them.
We all see the world through our own lens—what I like to think of as judgment-filter glasses. Our experiences, beliefs, and values shape how we interpret the world. They color everything we see.
That filter can quietly shift how we feel. It turns “what I feel” into “what I should feel.” And when that happens, we lose connection with what’s really here.
1. Contra Indicator? Real Estate Funds Biggest Outflows Ever
Markets & Mayhem
2. Contra Indicator? Small Caps Biggest Outflows Ever
Markets & Mayhem
3. YouTube Add Division Almost Bigger than NFLX Entire Business
YouTube wants to monetize its growing TV dominance with AI-powered ad formats
It’s been a big week for TV, with the annual “upfront” period kicking off in New York, where television titans put on extravagant sales presentations to draw in advertising advances.
This year, though, was different. Not only did the uncertainty of looming tariffs tighten the purse strings of some of TV’s biggest spenders, but a growing force in the space threatened both traditional broadcast networks like NBCUniversal and Paramount and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon.
Indeed, all eyes were on YouTube — the video sharing and social media platform that’s fast becoming the biggest thing on TV (some are even predicting that it will soon surpass Disney to become the biggest media company in the world). In fact, YouTube’s ad business alone is already bringing in close to the massive total revenues that behemoth Netflixhas been notching.
Sherwood
4. S&P Back to Highs in Forward P/E
Equities: The S&P 500 forward P/E ratio is nearing 22x again.
Bloomberg Terminal
5. Global Central Bank Gold Purchases
via MarketWatch
This chart from the fund management company Incrementum shows global central bank purchases over the last 75 years. “For three years in a row, central banks increased their gold reserves by more than 1,000 [metric tons] each year, achieving a special kind of hat-trick,” the firm says in its annual, “In Gold We Trust” report.
6. Europe Embracing Nuclear
Berlin dropped its opposition to nuclear power, part of a rapprochement with Paris that also marked a potentially major change in European Union energy policy. France is strongly pro-nuclear, while Germany began phasing it out after the 2011 Fukushima incident. But new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been critical of that decision, and is keen to build bridges with France. He agreed to remove all “biases” against nuclear in EU legislation, leaving it on a par with renewable energy. Europe in general has seen a nuclear revival: A dozen EU members signed a letter backing the technology, the Netherlands and Belgium reversed decisions to shut down reactors, and Denmark may lift a 40-year nuclear moratorium.
Europe shifts on nuclear power
Semafor
7. Percentage of American Adults with Chronic Health Conditions
WSJ
8. Second Home Sales Slowdown Except for $10m Plus
WSJ
9. Men vs. Women Repayment of Student Debt
Michael Arouet
10. Mark Cuban’s Last ‘Shark Tank’ Episode Airs Today. Here Are 3 of His Best Investments
As the billionaire entrepreneur departs the hit show, we look back at Dude Wipes and other fruitful deals.
Via INC: It’s the end of an era for Shark Tank: On Friday, Mark Cuban’s final episode airs, and the long-standing celebrity investor will finally bid the hit show adieu.
The Cost Plus Drugs founder has said he’s leaving to spend more time with his family. But in his wake he leaves many years of investments in American small businesses, some of which have gone on to become big brands (and others of which have faded into obscurity). Cuban said in 2022 that he had not yet made a net profit on his Shark Tank investments, but at least a handful of the investor’s big deals have become, well, big deals.
Here are some of the most pivotal moves Cuban made during his tenure on the show.
Dude Wipes
A flushable wet wipe hardly sounds like an innovative new product—but in explicitly marketing the toiletry to men, Dude Wipes has carved out a nice niche for itself. Cuban acquired a 25 percent stake in the company for $300,000, with the brand now worth more than $300 million.
It’s an impressive growth story, and one that will be commemorated in Friday’s episode, as Dude Wipes co-founder Ryan Meegan is set to thank Cuban for his support, TV Insider reports. The Shark’s send-off will reportedly find Meegan saying that since his company pitched Cuban, it has “done over half a billion dollars in sales.”
Cuban has previously identified Dude Wipes as one of his favorite investments from Shark Tank, saying the brand is “killing it” and “taking over the toilet paper category.”
Mush
Mush, a brand of packaged overnight oats, has aimed to shake up the world of oatmeal—to sometimes dubious consumer response. Still, it found a fan in Cuban, who won a bidding war to take a 10 percent stake in the brand for $300,000 and an unlimited credit line.
The food startup has since “thrived under Cuban’s guidance,” Yahoo Finance reports, with a valuation of nearly $11 million late last year and an annual growth rate of about 10 percent in the wake of its Shark Tank debut.
What those numbers will look like in the wake of President Trump’s ongoing tariffs push—Mush says it has long sourced its oats from Canada—remains to be seen.
BeatBox Beverages
Even when Cuban was investing $1 million for a one-third stake of the boxed wine company BeatBox Beverages, he had his doubts, warning that the brand’s strategy was wrong. A year later he was appearing on spin-off show Beyond the Tank to advise the BeatBox team on how to best grow their brand.
But his tough love paid off, with the alcohol brand making the Inc. 5000 list in 2019 and now appearing on grocery store shelves nationwide. (It is no longer listed as part of his portfolio on his website, however.)
Last year, Forbes pegged the company at a more than $200 million valuation, with over $100 million in annual sales.
