Quote of the Day
"Just as AI slop means endless articles, videos, and posts that are easy to create and empty of substance, ETF slop means endless new tickers that deliver little of lasting value."
(Sumit Roy)
Chart of the Day
Mortgage rates are at a 10-month low, but are still in a 3-year range. (chart via Freddie Mac)
Markets
- Why is the bond market so chill? (axios.com)
- The stock buyback boom is real. (finance.yahoo.com)
- On the growing concentration in the S&P 500. (novelinvestor.com)
ETFs
- Why bond indexing is more challenging than equities. (morningstar.com)
- Don't hold your breath that the ETF industry is going to slow down churning out product any time soon. (etf.com)
- Why active ETFs are a better wrapper for strategies than mutual funds. (morningstar.com)
Companies
- Owen Tucker-Smith, "The Amazonification of Whole Foods Market is nearly complete." (wsj.com)
- It's hard to say Costco ($COST) and Walmart ($WMT) are cheap stocks. (advisorperspectives.com)
- Former Dow Jones Industrial Average member, Walgreen's, is now private. (axios.com)
- Nobody thinks Apple ($AAPL) is taking AI seriously. (spyglass.org)
AI
- A look at some of the second-order effects of the AI buildout. (tomtunguz.com)
- The implementation of AI is not just a technical problem. (kyla.substack.com)
- AI is going eliminate jobs as well as amplify existing jobs. (thezvi.substack.com)
Public health
- The CDC is being hollowed out. (bloomberg.com)
- NIH cuts redound to the entire world. (nature.com)
- How cuts to Medicaid will affect the entire system. (nextavenue.org)
ICE
- Money is flowing freely through ICE. (theatlantic.com)
- A look at the companies that are flying planes for ICE. (ig.ft.com)
- All that ICE spending has to go somewhere. (farmersadvance.com)
Economy
- Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.3% in Q2 2025. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- Still no meaningful pickup in weekly initial unemployment claims. (bonddad.blogspot.com)
- The private sector can't do what the BLS does. (econbrowser.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Longform links: a less central America. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Wednesday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Personal finance links: creating your own metrics. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Don't miss a thing! Sign up for our daily e-mail newsletter. (abnormalreturns.com)
Mixed media
- Lawrence Yeo, "When you’re worried about what someone thinks of you, it’s rarely about that person’s opinions of you. It’s about your own opinions of yourself." (moretothat.com)
- Harvey Sawikin, "Those who seek something beyond mere excellence must spend their careers in a penumbral space far past “good enough” but short of “perfect,” accepting that the latter state is unattainable." (harveysawikin.substack.com)
- Matt Zeigler, "Sometimes standing for something means standing alone." (cultishcreative.com)
