Barron’s (January 2)
“If last year was full of fireworks that ultimately resulted in another big gain for the stock market, 2026 appears set to be a dud. Looking back at 2025, the fact that the S&P 500 index gained 16% feels like a small miracle. The Donald Trump experience has led to wild swings—who can forget the near bear-market in April after the president announced the first iteration of tariffs?” Looking ahead, “we’d expect a relatively flat year, with the S&P 500 finishing down about 2%.”
Tags: 16%, 2%, 2025, 2026, April, Bear market, Big gain, Dud, Fireworks, Flat, S&P 500, Stock market, Tariffs, Trump
Forbes (July 16)
“A double-barreled system of heat waves toppled daily record high temperatures across California, Arizona, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest, as well as some records in the Northeast over the past week, as more than 2,500 municipalities saw their daily heat records matched or broken—and more records are expected to fall as heat advisories remain in effect throughout the East Coast and the South.”
Tags: 2%, 500 municipalities, Arizona, California, Heat waves, High temperatures, Nevada, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Record, Toppled
Fortune (July 19)
“Over just a few months, ChatGPT went from correctly answering a simple math problem 98% of the time to just 2%.” This doesn’t necessarily show later versions are inferior as they might perform better on other tasks. The study which uncovered this does prove the existence of “wild fluctuations—called drift—in the technology’s ability to perform certain tasks.” Drift may arise from the rather “unpredictable effects of changes in one part of the model on others.”
Tags: 2%, 98%, Changes, ChatGPT, Drift, Fluctuations, Inferior, Model, Problem, Simple math, Study, Tasks, Technology, Unpredictable
American Banker (January 26)
“The Federal Reserve may be slowing down on rate increases, but the same isn’t true for your neighborhood bank. Almost 20% of U.S. banks offered to pay savings rates of 2% or more in January, up from 15% in December and from just 1% a year ago.”
Tags: 2%, Banks, Fed, Rate increases, Savings rates, U.S., Up
