My morning train reads:
• Stocks Took an 18-Month Round Trip From Tech Bear to AI Bull: The same handful of megacap names that led the market down have been powering the latest surge. (Businessweek)
• Inflation Cools Sharply in June, Good News for Consumers and the Fed: The Consumer Price Index climbed far more slowly in June, a relief for shoppers and a hopeful — though inconclusive — sign that America might pull off a “soft landing.” (New York Times) see also Inflation drops to lowest levels since March 2021 as economy cools: Wages are now rising faster than prices. The Federal Reserve isn’t ready to declare victory yet, because inflation isn’t consistently falling yet. (Washington Post)
• Masters of Their Own Realities: Taylor Swift isn’t the only one rerecording classics. A wide range of musicians are heading back to the studio to retrace the past and reclaim ownership of their work. (The Ringer)
• Empty Office Buildings Are Being Turned Into Vertical Farms: With office usage hovering near 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels, cities are putting the underutilized space to new use growing food. (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Peak TV Has Peaked: From Exhausted Talent to Massive Losses, the Writers Strike Magnifies an Industry in Freefall (Variety)
• ‘Bastion of the super-rich’: inside a New York billionaire’s private museum: A collection of art, featuring pieces by Picasso, Lichtenstein and Cézanne, has been kept secret for years but for select members of the public, the door is slowly being opened. (The Guardian)
• Platforms run away from politics and news: They can run, but they can’t hide (Anchor Change)
• A Year of Cosmic Wonder With the James Webb Space Telescope: With a new image, NASA commemorates the first anniversary of doing science with the most powerful observatory ever sent to space. (New York Times)
• Ocean temperatures “much higher than anything the models predicted,” climate experts warn: “We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” World Meteorological Organization director of climate services Christopher Hewitt said Monday. “This is worrying news for the planet.” (CBS News)
• Making Them Laugh, and Swoon: A year ago, Matt Rife was just another struggling road comedian. Then he blew up on TikTok. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Tom Wagner, Co-Portfolio Manager at Knighthead Capital. The $10 billion event-driven is a deep value-focused investor specializing in companies that need financial and operational restructuring. He is a co-investor with football legend Tom Brady in several sports assets, including a Pickleball team, Birmingham City FC in the English Football League, and an endurance auto racing team. Wagner began his career doing hedge fund accounting at Ernst & Young.
Measure It Differently, and Inflation Is Behind Us
Source: Wall Street Journal
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