What we’re reading (4/22)
“Stocks Regain Footing After Brutal Week” (Wall Street Journal). “Stocks jumped on Monday, bouncing back after last week’s dismal performance. The S&P 500 gained 0.9%, ending a six-day streak of losses, with each of the benchmark index’s 11 sectors finishing the day in the green. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1% after falling 5.5% last week. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%, or about 254 points.”
“Is There Enough Text To Feed The AI Beast?” (Semafor). “The amount of data on the internet is growing at a pace of about 7% per year, Epoch’s [an AI forecasting research institute] director, Jaime Sevilla, said, while the amount of data AI is being trained on is increasing at 200% per year. If the biggest models have ingested most of the content already, there won’t be much new information for them to learn from.”
“Are There Really More Things Going Wrong On Airplanes?” (Vox). “[W]hat’s actually happening? Are more planes having incidents than ever before? Or are we just hearing about more incidents? It’s mostly the latter. Minor aviation incidents with few or no injuries — like those listed above — happen constantly. They just don’t make the news. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates aviation incidents and accidents, lists 12 incidents on commercial aircraft in the United States so far this year. Last year, during the same time period, there were 13 such incidents.”
“Luxury Real Estate Prices Just Hit An All-Time Record” (CNBC). “Overall real estate sales fell 4% nationwide in the first quarter, according to Redfin. Yet, luxury real estate sales increased more than 2%, posting their best year-over-year gains in three years, according to Redfin.”
“Home Renovations Are Booming Thanks To High Rates” (Bloomberg). “In the early days of the pandemic, rock-bottom loan rates fueled a rise in US home sales as well as renovation spending. Today, as rates have shot up, more homeowners are staying put, but they’re still investing at near-record levels in bathroom redos, landscaping upgrades and other improvements. Abbe Will, senior research associate at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, describes their mindset this way: ‘I know I’m going to be in this home for however many more years, so what can I do to make it nicer for as long as I’m here?’”
