My mid-week morning plane reads:
• Real-Estate Agents Are Quitting the Slow Housing Market: Four years into a struggling market, even agents who survived the initial shakeout are hitting their breaking point. Fewer sales, longer timelines, second jobs. (Wall Street Journal)
• No, Market Highs Are Not a Bad Sign: The old Ritholtz classic, still relevant—the data on what happens after all-time highs is the opposite of what most people assume. (The Big Picture) see also New All-Time Highs: Since 1950, roughly 7% of all trading days have been new all-time highs. The highest percentage of trading days hitting new highs in a decade is the 1990s at 12.3%. This decade is far from over but we’ve experienced new highs in the S&P 500 in 13% of trading days. (Wealth of Common Sense)
• The Great Wealth Transfer Includes $570 Billion in Classic Cars: Boomers are about to hand off a staggering collection of vintage automobiles. The question is whether anyone under 60 wants them—and what happens to prices when supply floods the market. (Bloomberg)
• Best ETFs 2026: The Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence Winners: Morningstar’s annual ETF honors—the funds that earned top marks for performance, cost efficiency, and risk-adjusted returns. (Morningstar)
• Grocery Shoppers Are In For a Summer of Pain: The Iran war is driving up food costs, and the tariff aftershocks aren’t helping. Expect higher prices at the register through the fall. (Bloomberg)
• America’s Favorite Comedian Wants to Be the Next Walt Disney—and He’s Not Joking: Nate Bargatze, the country’s top selling stand-up comic, has a grand ambition: a $350 million theme park in Nashville, Tenn. (Wall Street Journal)
• If You Take the Weasel Job Then You Must Be the Weasel: Hamilton Nolan on the moral clarity of job titles—if you accept a role that requires you to do terrible things, you don’t get to pretend you’re not the one doing them. (Hamilton Nolan)
• I Want It, But I Don’t Like It: A sharp essay on the gap between desire and enjoyment—why we keep pursuing things that don’t actually make us happy, and what that says about modern consumer psychology. (Panoptica)
• Jimmy Kimmel ‘Felt Defeated’ by Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation and Says Late-Night TV Is Not ‘Dying of Natural Causes’: ‘We’re Being Poisoned’ The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host opened up in a new interview with Vulture about the future of the genre following the cancellation of Stephen Colbert‘s “Late Show” on CBS and his own run-ins with Trump, including his suspension following comments made about the death of Charlie Kirk. (Variety)
• Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals mega-preview: Game 1 tips off June 3 in San Antonio. The Athletic’s comprehensive breakdown—predictions, odds, matchups, and everything else you need before the series starts. (The Athletic)
Video of the day: How a Secretive Trading Empire Is Taking Over Wall Street
Be sure to check out our special Masters in Business this week, Remembering Jonathan Clements with Bill Bernstein and Jason Zweig. The two recall Clements’ impact on the investor community; they discuss his posthumous book, “Money and Me.”
The Deal That Keeps the Oil Flowing
Source: Epicenter
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