What we’re reading (2/8)
“Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq Futures Rise With Wall Street Looking To Continue Dow 50,000 Rally” (Yahoo! Finance). “US stock futures edged higher Sunday night as investors geared up for a packed week of economic data and corporate earnings, following a turbulent stretch that ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a record close above 50,000 on Friday.”
“Stocks’ Sharp Rebound Is Only Making Investors More Nervous” (Wall Street Journal). “The tensions remain as stocks head into the new week. Even during Friday’s surge, there were lingering signs of investors’ skepticism about the mammoth amounts of cash being funneled into AI expenditures. Amazon.com shares slid 5.6%, losing around $133 billion in market value after the company said it plans to spend $200 billion on AI-related costs this year. Alphabet shares fell 2.5%.”
“The Secular Decline in Interest Rates And The Rise Of Shadow Banks” (alpha architect). “For decades, traditional commercial banks dominated the mortgage market. However, over the last 20 years, a massive shift has occurred, with “shadow banks”- non-depository institutions like Quicken Loans -capturing nearly half of all originations. While many attribute this to new technology or post-crisis rules, recent research reveals a deeper economic catalyst: the secular decline in interest rates.”
“The Hidden Truth About Private Market Returns” (Larry Swedroe). “Private equity returns can be deceiving. Analysis from Ares Management shows that two funds reporting the same internal rate of return (IRR) can leave investors with dramatically different dollar outcomes—a gap driven more by fund structure than manager skill.”
“The Fall Of The Nerds” (Noahpinion). “It occurs to me that this represents something momentous — the end of an economic age. My entire life has been lived within a well-known story arc — the relentless rise, in both wealth and status, of a broad social class of technical professionals. That rainbow may now be at an end. The economic changes — not just on careers, education, and the distribution of wealth, but on the entire way our cities and national economies are organized — could be profound.”
