Hello, Quartz members, and welcome to Sunday Reads!
This past week, Boeing still had the blues, the presidential election got closer (in time, anyway), New York City’s mayor got indicted, the Walmart kids became centibillionaires, and Hurricane Helene battered Florida.
But it’s Sunday, and time to shift your gaze to some hand-selected reads. Here are some of our favorite Quartz stories from the week, plus a sneak peek at one story coming next week to get your day started.
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5 things we especially liked on Quartz
💞 Who are Nvidia’s biggest admirers? Almost half of Nvidia’s sales of top-range computer chips were to only four companies, but the surging chipmaker won’t say who they are. Alphabet? Amazon? Meta? Microsoft? Tesla? Britney Nguyen goes hunting for clues.
⛽ Gas prices just keep falling. With both gasoline demand and oil costs low, the price at the pump is expected to keep falling this fall. Already, 14 states have an average gasoline price below $3 a gallon. Melvin Blackman explains what’s going on with a close look at the gas market.
🍿 See you at the movies! A strong summer box office paved the way for billions of dollars in planned investments in upgrades at movie theaters across the country. Grab your popcorn and join Bruce Gil for a look at what’s coming to a theater near you.
👩⚖️ Wrong side of the law. The Federal Trade Commission is coming down hard on an AI bot that promised to be your virtual lawyer. DoNotPay said its AI bot could sue people on your behalf and generate perfectly valid legal documents in no time. But the FTC says no lawyers were involved in making the bot, and that it was worthless. Deena Zaidi has the details.
😈 The Devil made me hear it. In our Quartz Weekly Obsession, we dive into the the tritone, the interval between the notes F and B, which clash in a way that feels twitchy, unnatural, and foreboding. Think the first two notes of Purple Haze. To learn more about this unsettling, ambiguous and unresolved sound, read on.
1 sneak peek
⌚ Watch it, buddy! Watch enthusiasts are going to have the time of their life this October, as Sotheby’s auction house holds three diamond-studded watch sales in Hong Kong and Paris. On Monday, Quartz’s Madeline Fitzgerald will share a preview of the top pieces expected to be on sale, and tips for amateur horologists. Visit qz.com on Monday morning for a look at the future of... everything.
What we’re watching this week
- Monday: The labor contract expires for a union representing more than 85,000 dockworkers across more than 100 East and Gulf Coast ports, potentially setting the stage for a strike that could start as soon as Tuesday and have significant economic impacts. The Mainnet crypto conference begins in New York and runs through Wednesday. Carnival Corp. reports earnings before the bell.
- Tuesday: U.S. automakers are expected to begin reporting quarterly sales figures. Nike reports earnings after the bell.
- Wednesday: Levi Strauss & Co 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, joy, or thoughts on getting those Boeing astronauts home. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green, Audrey McNamara, and Morgan Haefner.