What we’re reading (10/2)
“Americans Are Still Spending Like There’s No Tomorrow” (Wall Street Journal). “Interest rates are up. Inflation remains high. Pandemic savings have shrunk. And the labor market is cooling. Yet household spending, the primary driver of the nation’s economic growth, remains robust. Americans spent 5.8% more in August than a year earlier, well outstripping less than 4% inflation. And the experience economy boomed this summer, with Delta Air Lines reporting record revenue in the second quarter and Ticketmaster selling over 295 million event tickets in the first six months of 2023, up nearly 18% year-over-year. Economists and financial advisers say consumers putting short-term needs and goals above long-term ones is normal. Still, this moment is different, they say.”
“JPMorgan Boss Jamie Dimon Says AI Will Enable A 3.5-Day Workweek As He Reveals The Technology Is ‘Already Doing All The Equity Hedging’ For His Bank” (The Daily Mail). “Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence is already being used in most parts of JPMorgan and that it will eventually likely shorten the work week to 3.5 days. In a Monday interview with Bloomberg TV, the Wall Street titan spoke about the development of AI is impacting his bank and what sorts of effects it will likely have on the working world in the future.”
“Why Stocks Are Likely To Be Especially Volatile This October” (MarketWatch). “You might think October’s historical volatility can be traced to the U.S. market crashes that occurred in 1929 and 1987, each of which occurred during that month. But you’d be wrong: October remains at the top of the volatility rankings even if those two years are removed from the sample. Nor is there any trend over time in October’s place in those rankings: If we divide the period since the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA was created in 1896 into two periods, October is the most volatile in both the first and second halves.”
“Microsoft C.E.O. Testifies That Google’s Power In Search Is Ubiquitous” (New York Times). “Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, testified on Monday that Google’s power in online search was so ubiquitous that even his company found it difficult to compete on the internet, becoming the government’s highest-profile witness in its landmark antitrust trial against the search giant. In more than three hours of testimony in federal court in Washington, Mr. Nadella was often direct and sometimes combative as he laid out how Microsoft could not overcome Google’s use of multibillion-dollar deals to be the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.”
“How 10-year Treasurys Could Produce 20% Returns, According To UBS” (MarketWatch). “Owners of 10-year Treasury notes at recent yields of around 4.5% could reap up to 20% in total returns in a year if the U.S. economy stumbles into a recession, according to UBS Global Wealth Management. The key would be for U.S. debt to rally significantly as investors scramble for safety in the roughly $25 trillion treasury market.”
