What we’re reading (2/14)
“Bonds Rally As Weak Retail Sales Bolster Fed Bets: Markets Wrap” (Bloomberg). “The bond market ended the week with solid gains as a soft reading on retail sales revived bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts. A rally in Treasuries pushed the 10-year yield below 4.5%, with the bond notching its fifth straight week of gains — the longest run since 2021. Money markets are back to fully pricing in a first Fed reduction by September. The S&P 500 hovered near its all-time highs. The dollar hit a fresh low for 2025.”
“Cheap Blood Test Detects Pancreatic Cancer Before It Spreads” (Nature). “Researchers have developed a simple blood test to detect pancreatic cancer before it spreads to other sites in the body. The test could be used for routine screening to improve the disease’s low survival rate. ‘It’s a very pragmatic, really translatable solution’ that builds on many advances in the field, says Simone Schürle-Finke, a biomedical engineer at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. The results are described in Science Translational Medicine today.”
“How Zoning Ruined The Housing Market In Blue-State America” (Wall Street Journal). “In January, the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles spurred California Gov. Gavin Newsom to do something extraordinary for a progressive politician: take aim at regulations. In an executive order designed to help residents rebuild, Newsom suspended environmental reviews, told state agencies to identify rules that might impede construction and instructed bureaucrats to rush any necessary permits through the process. The measures, Newsom explained, were made necessary by the loss of thousands of homes in a city already suffering a housing crisis. All of which seemed perfectly reasonable. So reasonable, in fact, that it raised a troubling question: If the only way to rebuild was to suspend the regular rules, why were those rules there in the first place? The answer is that the rules were intended to make it all but impossible to build, not just in California but in much of blue-state America.”
“Meta Platforms Stock Just Closed Higher For The 20th Straight Day” (Yahoo! Finance). “Year to date, Meta stock is now up 25.8%, far outpacing its Magnificent Seven peers. Amazon (AMZN) is the next best-performing stock among this group of Big Tech stalwarts, having risen 4.2% this year through Friday's close. Tesla has been the laggard of the group, falling 11.9% in 2025.”
“READ: Prosecutors’ Resignation Letters After Refusing To Drop Eric Adams Case” (Axios). “There is a tradition in public service of resigning in a last-ditch effort to head off a serious mistake. Some will view the mistake you are committing here in the light of their generally negative views of the new Administration. I do not share those views. I can even understand how a Chief Executive whose background is in business and politics might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful deal. But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
