One for the record books – The second-quarter earnings season ended with a bang: S&P 500 Index stocks notched record earnings growth of 52% year over year, the highest rate since the second quarter of 2021. The energy sector grew earnings at an eye-popping 146% year over year. (Source: Factset)

AI arms race, bond boom – AI hyperscalers are spending so much to finance data centers, chips, and infrastructure that the new debt they've issued this year reached nearly 70% of new Treasury supply for 2026. The sheer amount of debt being issued by these companies is highlighting how the race to build AI infrastructure is reshaping demand for long-term bonds. (Source: Yahoo Finance)

The one relationship that’s on the rocks when they agree – Instead of their typical inverse relationship, stocks and bonds have been moving in lockstep in 2026. The correlation between the S&P 500 Index and Treasuries has remained positive since March and hit a 30-year high of 0.77 in June. (Source: Barron's)

Not quite a band of merry men – Hackers exploited a software glitch to take 4,000 bitcoin, worth about $320 million, from the Liquid Network (which functions sort of like a digital bank for bitcoin owners). The hackers notified the company of the security vulnerability afterward, but they only returned 3,400 of their spoils. (Source: Gizmodo)

When in doubt, build it out … again – China is once again turning to infrastructure spending to support growth. China Development Bank supplied 460 million yuan (about $68 million) under the first tranche of a 2026 policy-based financing tool, which will be used to replenish capital for major construction projects backed by private ⁠investors. (Source: Reuters)

Rising prices aren’t just a pain at the pump – Long-term care service costs are rising quickly. From 2019 to 2024, adult day services pricing rose 33% and nursing-home costs jumped 25%, all while household income for those 65 and older grew just 22% over the same period. (Source: AARP)

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want – Single Americans who say income matters in a relationship expect a partner to earn an average of $139,000 a year—well above the roughly $72,000 median for US workers in their peak earning years. Though 59% of singles said a partner's income isn't important at all, just as many (60%) called poor financial habits an outright dealbreaker. (USA Today)

Going to the movies is cool again – After struggling for years to compete against streaming, COVID-19, and industry strikes, movie theaters had their best summer since 2019, surpassing $4 billion in revenue from May to August. A string of blockbusters such as "The Odyssey," "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "Toy Story 5," and the latest "Spider-Man" movie helped revive a so-called monoculture that helps drive ticket sales because everyone is excited about the same piece of entertainment. (Source: Variety)

Put your money where your macaw is – A new conservation fund called the Phoenix Species Project is putting $200 million behind efforts to help 100 critically endangered species across 30 countries. The project is a collaboration between Re:wild, a nonprofit group co-founded by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Bezos Earth Fund, a private foundation created by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos. (Source: The New York Times)

Late night drama on the courts – In a tennis match that finally concluded at 3:33 am, the latest finish in tournament history, Ben Shelton toppled reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open quarterfinals. At just 23 years old, Shelton is now the favorite to win the tournament and would be first American man to win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open. (Source: ESPN)