This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about how New York City’s super-rich are complaining about Zohran Mamdami’s tax on second homes, saying the mayor’s proposed levy is “demonizing philanthropists.” Send me your entry — to haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET Thursday, for consideration by your Cheddar peers.

And now, news!

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• Stocks rise toward more records

• Anthropic investigating unauthorized Mythos access

• We talked to the guy who makes Toughbooks

• This economist thinks AI will be good for your job

• A new computer memory fund attracts $$$

• Poll of the day: Insecure, much?

• Poll of the day: Some advice for John Ternus

What’s the stock market up to, eh?*

$SPX ( ▲ 1.05% ) $DJI ( ▲ 0.69% ) $NDX ( ▲ 1.59% )  

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$GEV ( ▲ 13.75% )  $BSX ( ▲ 8.99% )  $BA ( ▲ 5.53% )  $PM ( ▲ 6.98% )  $TLRY ( ▲ 14.22% )  $CGC ( ▲ 21.05% )  $BBY ( ▼ 4.6% )  $AMZN ( ▲ 2.18% )  $MSFT ( ▲ 2.07% )  $AAPL ( ▲ 2.63% )  $CSCO ( ▲ 0.11% )  $CRWD ( ▲ 3.8% )  $SSNLF ( ▲ 115.99% )  $MU ( ▲ 8.48% )  $SNDK ( ▲ 8.37% )  $PCRFY ( ▼ 3.03% )  $BNPEF ( 0.0% )  $DRAM ( ▲ 6.79% )  $MU ( ▲ 8.48% )  $SNDK ( ▲ 8.37% )  

Stocks rise toward more records

Wall Street is moving toward new all-time highs as strong corporate profits outweigh concerns about the ongoing Iran war and oil prices topping $100 a barrel.

A variety of stocks drove the market yesterday. GE Vernova $GEV ( ▲ 13.75% ) surged 12.1% after booking $2.4 billion in data center equipment orders. Other strong performers beating analysts' expectations include Boston Scientific $BSX ( ▲ 8.99% ) , Boeing $BA ( ▲ 5.53% ) , and Philip Morris International $PM ( ▲ 6.98% ) .

Cannabis stocks also saw a massive boost on reports that the Trump administration is set to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, with Tilray Brands $TLRY ( ▲ 14.22% ) jumping 14.8% and Canopy Growth $CGC ( ▲ 21.05% ) surging 17.9%.

Conversely, Best Buy $BBY ( ▼ 4.6% ) fell 5.2% following the “Worst Bye” (departure) of its CEO, Corie Barry. She’ll be replaced by a company insider investors evidently trust less.

The AI and tech sectors are also seeing solid gains, led by stocks like Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 2.18% ) , Microsoft $MSFT ( ▲ 2.07% ) , Apple $AAPL ( ▲ 2.63% ) , Cisco $CSCO ( ▲ 0.11% ) , CrowdStrike $CRWD ( ▲ 3.8% ) , Samsung Electronics $SSNLF ( ▲ 115.99% ) , Micron Technology $MU ( ▲ 8.48% ) , and Sandisk $SNDK ( ▲ 8.37% ) .

Quote of the Day

Anthropic investigating unauthorized Mythos access

Anthropic, the $380 billion AI lab, is reportedly investigating whether unauthorized users gained access to its highly advanced Claude Mythos model, according to Bloomberg.

Because of its formidable cybersecurity capabilities and the risk of it being used for high-speed cyber attacks, Mythos was exclusively released to a small, trusted group of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and CrowdStrike.

But the breach allegedly occurred via a system designed for third-party contractors. Addressing the incident, the company told the FT: "We’re investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments."

Security experts warn that if the technology falls into the wrong hands, hackers could use the model to find and exploit software vulnerabilities much faster than targeted organizations are able to fix them.

Anthropic has noted that it currently has no evidence of the malicious activity extending outside of this specific "vendor environment.” But the event has amplified existing anxieties over the lab's ability to secure its powerful technology from “bad actors.” (Although what William Shatner would want to do with Mythos, I have no idea.)

The extra scrutiny is particularly intense following two other recent security incidents: human error exposing the Mythos model's descriptions in a public data cache, and the accidental public release of internal source code for the Claude Code assistant. Oops!

We talked to the guy who makes Toughbooks

In a world where your smartphone shatters if you so much as look at it wrong, let’s spare a moment for the Toughbook™, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Yes, three decades of surviving things you definitely wouldn't wish on your MacBook.

According to Dominick Passanante at Panasonic $PCRFY ( ▼ 3.03% ) , their product "really is something unique. It's in a niche market. It's not a typical consumer device." In other words, this is for people who star in movies about their competence. Think Navy SEALs and computer hackers. YES.

Passanante explains that Panasonic "built our devices around the requirements of our end users, which are typically anyone that's gonna be a mobile worker and working in a harsh environment." By "harsh environment," he means "extreme heat, extreme cold, moisture, vibration."

For the new Toughbook 56? Forget minor updates. They listened to customers whine about the one thing that truly matters on a 12-hour shift: "battery life is always top of mind." They also added modular features called XPACs, because you need a computing solution that doubles as a customizable Swiss Army knife in the field. As Passanante sums up their mission, "we will still develop, we will speak, we would still work with our clients and customers, make sure we have this active integration."

I would like one, please, just to look cool, which I think is probably a larger part of their market than they’d like to admit.

Song of the Day: Jack White, ‘G.O.D and the Broken Ribs’

Here’s a psychedelic, apocalyptic blues track with scorching guitar work and a two-chord chug. It’s reminiscent of Mr. White’s early garage rock with the White Stripes.

This economist thinks AI will be good for your job

Another day, another terrifying headline about the robots taking our jobs, right? I think I may have actually written that same headline on Monday, to be honest. And I’m not sorry. Still, you’ve heard the gospel: AI is an efficiency improvement that will lead to mass displacement, plunging inflation, and central bankers rushing to cut rates. Sounds like no fun.

But fear not, human! Andrew Husby, Senior U.S. Economist at BNP Paribas $BNPEF ( 0.0% ) , is here to tell you to put down the doomsday script and embrace the “triumph of the pragmatic optimists.” Husby’s team published a “very lengthy note” suggesting a truly radical idea: AI isn't just about displacement; it's about a “large demand uplift.”

Apparently, the future of AI requires actual human investment — think of the people building data centers, power grids, and equipment. This monumental undertaking, combined with positive market sentiment, means the economy actually “sucks in more labor over time” and the unemployment rate might not rise “very much.” So, it turns out building a giant, world-eating AI machine is also a job creator.

In fact, AI is such a benefit that the U.S. economy is projected to be a whopping six to seven percent larger over the next decade. The benefits, currently hogged by “model providers” and “construction companies,” will eventually “diffuse over time” to noble, un-automated fields like healthcare and education. So, relax. Your job might not be dead. Trust the economist!

A new computer memory fund attracts $$$

The newly launched Roundhill Memory Exchange Traded Fund, trading under the ticker $DRAM ( ▲ 6.79% ) , has achieved an unprecedented milestone by gathering over $1 billion in assets in less than two weeks. The fund is a way for U.S. investors to get access to a variety of memory stocks which are up hugely thanks to the AI boom, and which, in many cases, aren’t available to trade on U.S. exchanges.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described the fund's rapid ascent as "beyond shocking," in conversation with the Wall Street Journal.

More than three-quarters of the fund is heavily concentrated in just three major players: Micron Technology $MU ( ▲ 8.48% ) , Samsung Electronics, and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. Recent market gains in this sector have been staggering, with Sandisk $SNDK ( ▲ 8.37% ) up nearly 300% to become the S&P 500's best performer this year, and Samsung shares jumping 83% in Korea.

A key driver of DRAM's appeal is that it offers U.S. investors access to Samsung and SK Hynix, which do not normally trade directly on U.S. exchanges. Furthermore, the fund has captivated individual investors on platforms like Reddit and X, as well as South Korean retail traders.

Roundhill Investments CEO Dave Mazza admitted, “To be quite honest, we were not forecasting that this ETF would essentially be in rarefied air within 10 days." Mazza also noted that South Korean retail investors are "particularly proud that there’s now a U.S.-listed ETF that provides exposure to companies that are so important to their local market."

I’m proud of this thing, too, guys. You go git ‘em.

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Should you check your 401(k) today?

👍️ 

Yes.

Poll of the day: Insecure, much?

Poll of the day: Some advice for John Ternus

We asked: What's the brightest idea for the new Apple CEO?

You answered:

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Left-handed iPhones. (54)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Catch up somehow in the AI race. (108)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Ask Siri what to do with the Vision Pro. (58)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Create a new invisible outfit for himself and parade down the street naked, hoping nobody will notice. (57)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Update his LinkedIn profile with a photograph. (146)
423 Votes via @beehiiv polls

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