What we’re reading (10/2)
“FICO Shakes Up Credit-Score Market” (Wall Street Journal). “Fair Isaac is upending the credit-scoring industry by giving mortgage lenders a way to get its credit scores without buying them from Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. Shares of Fair Isaac, which goes by the name FICO after its well-known credit score, surged 18% and the shares of the credit-scoring firms fell as much as 11%.”
“Why Nvidia, Broadcom And Other High-Flying Stocks Are Especially Risky Now” (MarketWatch). “October doesn’t deserve its reputation as the month when stock-market crashes occur. Though the two worst crashes in U.S. history happened in that month — 1929 and 1987 — the risk of a marketwide crash is no greater in October than in any other month. Investors worried about a broad market crash in October can perhaps take a bigger sigh of relief. The same cannot be said of momentum investors who are betting on industries that have recently performed the best. A few of their favorite sectors are especially vulnerable to a crash right now.”
“Gold Drops As Dollar Gains, Investors Take Profits After Rally” (Bloomberg). “Gold retreated as the dollar pushed higher and investors booked profits after a five-day rally that saw it reach fresh records. Traders also sought clues on the US economy as the government shutdown delayed key data.”
“Tom Lee sees S&P 500 topping 7,000 by year-end, says don’t be fooled by shutdown calamity talk” (CNBC). “Lee believes the suspension of economic data releases from federal agencies is a “sidebar issue,” adding that past shutdowns have had little lasting impact on equities. The widely followed strategist, who called 2025′s bull run to all-time highs in stocks, expects the S&P 500 to reach at least 7,000 by December with potential for further gains.”
“Move Fast And Break Nothing” (The Atlantic). “Every trip in a self-driving Waymo has the same dangerous moment. The robotaxi can successfully shuttle you to your destination, stopping carefully at every red light and dutifully following the speed limit. But at the very end, you, a flawed human being, will have to place your hand on the door handle, look both ways, and push the door open. From mid-February to mid-August of this year, Waymo’s driverless cars were involved in three collisions that came down to roughly identical circumstances: A passenger flung their door open and hit somebody passing by on a bike or scooter. That’s according to an independent analysis of crash reports the company has disclosed to the government, which found that most of the 45 serious accidents involving Waymos were the fault of other motorists or seemingly an act of God. (In one case, a pickup truck being towed in front of a Waymo came loose and smashed into the vehicle.) None were definitively the fault of Waymo’s actual self-driving technology.”
