What we’re reading (2/15)
“In A Chaotic Market, Investors Learn How To Cope With Surprises” (Wall Street Journal). “Along with the unexpected, investors in the coming holiday-shortened week are preparing to parse data on economic growth and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, along with earnings from Walmart, auto seller Carvana and equipment maker Deere. The nerves are evident from spikes in the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge because it measures the price of options that investors tend to buy when expecting stock swings. The median daily absolute move on the index has climbed to 4.2%, from 3.5% during the last year of Joe Biden’s presidency, according to FactSet data.”
“The Stock Market Is Reflecting Fears Of An AI Apocalypse For White-Collar Jobs” (MarketWatch). “What started as a somewhat academic fear of an AI reckoning for white-collar workers is now starting to seem a little more tangible — at least in the eyes of Wall Street. A specter is haunting the U.S. equity market, as seemingly every day a new AI feature sparks investor panic about fresh sectors that are ripe for disruption.”
“OpenClaw Creator Peter Steinberger Joining OpenAI, Altman Says” (CNBC). “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Sunday that the creator of the viral AI agent OpenClaw is joining the company, and that the service will ‘live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.’”
“10-Year Yields Should Be Higher” (Torsten Slok). “The incoming data has surprised significantly to the upside in recent weeks, but long rates have not moved higher[.]”
“Maybe America Needs Some New Cities” (New York Times). “Enticed by the potential profits and eager to have more control over their footprint, investors and businesses are backing new town and city concepts that, like Irvine, are guided by a private hand. Some of the plans are dead serious, others fanciful. Perhaps not surprisingly, their most enthusiastic proponents tend to be technology billionaires.”
