Hello, Quartz members!
Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 charges related to hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. The economy’s up, but a lot of people don’t believe it. And big oil companies just keep gobbling each other up. It’s Sunday, so time to shift your gaze to some hand-selected reads. Here are our favorite Quartz stories from the past week, plus a sneak preview of the future of banking.
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5 reads we liked on Quartz
Price cuts. The world of retail may finally have hit the supply-demand and cost-sensitivity tipping point, as lackluster quarterly results show falling profits and fewer shoppers at many of the biggest U.S. retailers, from Target and Walmart to Aldi and Amazon. Their response? Cut prices, explains Francisco Velasquez.
A healthcare affordability crisis. Some 27% of American adults skipped some form of healthcare last year because they simply couldn’t afford it, according to a new survey by the Federal Reserve. And that’s despite the fact that 91% of American adults report they have health insurance. That’s up from 24% in 2021. The treatment most often skipped? Dental care.
Fire that analyst. Looking to win big in the markets? Some AI bots can predict a company’s earnings better than human analysts. Well, a little better. Using chain-of-thought prompting, which helps language models carry out complex reasoning tasks by breaking them down into smaller steps, these models are 60.4% accurate. That’s 7 percentage points higher than the average analyst prediction.
Or just use your iPhone. At its Worldwide Developers Conference in mid-June, Apple is expected to introduce iOS18, which will pack a quiver full of AI-powered tools, a first step to brining the power of AI right to your pocket and into your everyday life. Laura Bratton has the details.
Money talks or Elon walks? On June 13, Tesla shareholders will vote on a $46 billion pay package for Elon Musk. Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis says the comp package is too much and that shareholders should nix the plan, saying it’s too rich — and besides, Musk’s focus is split among too many projects, from X to SpaceX. But Musk says he may leave Tesla if he can’t maintain enough control of the firm.
1 sneak peek
Open banking: A new generation of connected financial services, known as “open banking,” is here and growing. It lets customers and banks share personal financial data, and prohibits banks from hoarding your data. The aim is to make it easier to keep track of your finances. But it’s also a way for merchants, financial tech companies and rival banks to leverage your data. Rocio Fabbro will explain this brave new world tomorrow morning on qz.com.
🗓️ What to watch for this week
Here’s what our newsroom will be keeping an eye on:
- Sunday: Mexico, the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, is slated to elect its first woman president. The Cisco Live Global tech conference also starts in Las Vegas, with leaders from Amazon and Nvidia slated to speak.
- Tuesday: An FDA panel will consider whether to recommend MDMA for PTSD treatment. Across the world, one of the largest computer and tech conferences, Computex Taipei, takes place in Taiwan — and the world’s biggest chipmakers will have their AI muscles flexed.
- Wednesday: Dollar Tree will release its earnings before the bell, and Lululemon reports its numbers after the market closes. GameStop is also scheduled to report earnings.
- Thursday: The latest data on the U.S. trade balance will be published. Aluminum products maker Novelis is also vying for a $12.6 billion valuation in its IPO.
- Friday: The latest U.S. jobs report will be out. Healthcare payments company Waystar aims to raise more than $1 billion in its IPO.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, comments or your AI-powered iPhone. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter Green, Audrey McNamara, and Morgan Haefner.