Hello, Quartz members, and welcome to Sunday Reads!
It was the week the Fed finally cut rates, by a gargantuan half of a percentage point. It was also the week Donald Trump officially launched his cryptocurrency project, Elon Musk made an end-run around Brazil’s telecoms regulator, and Boeing’s 33,000 machinists went on strike. Here are some of our favorite Quartz stories from the week, plus a sneak peek at one story coming tomorrow to get your day started.
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5 things we especially liked on Quartz
🦈 A KINDer and gentler shark? Dan Lubetzky, who launched the KIND bars brand, will have a permanent spot in the Shark Tank, replacing maverick Mark Cuban as a regular panelist on the ABC series. Quartz’s Madeline Fitzgerald climbed into the tank for a chat with Lubetzky.
🧠 Not that smart(phone). The new iPhone appears to be underperforming, with sales for the AI-powered iPhone 16 down 13% from first-weekend sales of the iPhone 15 last year. In fact, sales are so slow that Apple employees can already get a discount. Analysts blame the drop on Apple’s measured rollout of AI features. Rocio Fabbro is here to share all the relevant Apple Intelligence.
🛫 Stow that in your overhead bin! Analysts and airlines are at odds over the return of business travel to its pre-pandemic highs. Airlines say they expect more pleasure and less business travel, which could mean fewer flights to Frankfurt and more to the Algarve. Melvin Backman is onboard to be your guide.
🧑⚕️ Is Goop a goner? Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company has hit hard times. Sales have been flat for several years, and now it’s laying off 18% of its 216-person staff to refocus on beauty, fashion, and food. Madeline Fitzgerald has the latest.
⛓️ Back on the chain gang? Amazon’s white-collar set is about to get a taste of what the warehouse workers have to deal with. The company is one of at least a half-dozen major firms that have ditched remote work and are ordering all employees to get back to their desks five days a week. Ben Kesslen breaks it down.
1 Sneak peek
Gas prices tend to rise in the fall. But this year, interest rates are finally on their way down, EV sales are up — and oil prices are down to about $70 a barrel, from $120 two years ago. Quartz’s Melvin Backman will take a look at fall pump prices. Visit qz.com on Monday morning for that and all the latest business news.
What we’re watching this week
- Tuesday: Novo Nordisk CEO to testify in Congress about Ozempic/Wegovy prices, FAA chief Michael G. Whitaker testifies on Boeing, and the House hears testimony on the CrowdStrike outage.
- Wednesday: Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Meta Connect conference.
- Thursday: Costco reports earnings after the bell
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, or the joys of returning to the office fve days a week. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green and Morgan Haefner.