As many of you might know, I love cars. I love the looks, the engineering, the sounds, and the smile it brings to your face when you mash the pedal. So before we get to the interesting facts and figures from the last month, I’m going to follow the bright orange sign to take a quick detour.
For me, when one of the most storied names in automotive history (and my favorite car brand) pulls the sheet off something brand new, I’m clearly paying attention. This past Tuesday, Ferrari did exactly that. And what it revealed was, well, not what I expected.
The car is called the Luce, Italian for “light,” and it’s Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle. It debuted in Rome, and the reaction was, to put it bluntly, awful. The design, penned not in Maranello but by Jony Ive’s firm (yes, the man behind the iPhone), produced a wedge-shaped, glass-domed five-seater that looks less like a Prancing Horse and more like an iPhone, in a case, on wheels. Even their former chairman, when asked for his opinion, basically declined, suggesting only that Ferrari might want to remove the logo from the car. When your own former boss says take the badge off, that’s not ideal.
Then there’s the price. The Luce starts around $640,000 before you tick a single option box, and in Ferrari’s world, the options are where the real money lives. But anyone buying a Ferrari expects the hit to the pocketbook, so here’s what makes it fascinating. As an engineering exercise, the Luce is pretty impressive: four in-house electric motors producing 1,035 horsepower, zero to sixty in about 2.5 seconds, and a top speed around 190 mph. That sounds pretty impressive, right? But for context, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S makes about 938 horsepower and starts at around $200,000, while the Tesla Model S Plaid (no longer in production) puts down around 1,020 horsepower for about $110,000. So the Ferrari is competitive on power, in the same conversation on acceleration, and roughly three to six times the price of either. Which is the whole point. Nobody buys a Ferrari for horsepower per dollar. They buy it for the feeling. The worry is whether an electric crossover designed by the iPhone guy delivers that feeling at all.
And per usual, Wall Street didn’t wait to find out. On the day of the reveal, Ferrari’s stock fell sharply, dropping about 7% in a single session. Some of that was simple “sell the news” profit-taking after a strong run-up. But part of it, analysts agree, was “design hate,” expressed in selling shares.
But what can a hideous-looking $640,000 electric Ferrari teach us? The one thing that sprang to my mind was about brand DNA. Ferrari built one of the most valuable identities on earth by knowing exactly what it was and refusing to compromise it. The risk with the Luce isn’t that it’s a bad car. I’m sure it’s going to be quite fun to drive (not that I’ll ever get a chance). The risk is that, in chasing a new market, a new prospective buyer, and a new technology all at once, Ferrari may have gone a few steps too far from the thing that made it Ferrari. Companies do it all the time, but so do individuals with their portfolios (often driven by FOMO). The strongest brands and the strongest plans tend to be those that know precisely who they are and what their goals are, and stay true to them, even when there is a pull to do something new.
So, sticking with doing what you know, here are some interesting items that caught my eye over the last few weeks.
No Withdrawals from Roth Accounts. Traditional IRA withdrawals can be taken penalty-free at age 59½ and become mandatory at age 73, as shown clearly in the data. Fewer than 10% of traditional IRA accounts have withdrawals at age 59, rising to over 80% by age 73. Roth IRAs, which have no distribution requirements, tell a different story; fewer than 10% of accounts show withdrawals even at age 90. (Source: ICI)
Nine Lives of Fraud. The FTC reported that fraud losses totaled $15.9 billion in 2025, up 27% y/y. Imposter scams, which include the flood of fake toll-collection texts, ranked as the leading fraud category for the ninth consecutive year, with more than a million imposter reports filed. (Source: FTC)
Less than you thought? The average college senior expects to make $80,000 in their first year out of college, or nearly 30% more than the actual average starting salary of $56,000. The gap only widens over time as seniors predict they’ll earn around $145,000/yr a decade into their careers, while the actual figure sits closer to $95,000. (Source: Clever)
Countdown to an IPO. On 5/20, SpaceX (SPCX) filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) seeking to raise $80 billion, making it the largest IPO in history. That figure easily surpasses Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion IPO in 2019 and would exceed the total raised in the prior three largest IPOs combined. (Source: Renaissance Capital)
More than a Year? SpaceX’s (SPCX) $80 billion IPO would eclipse the total proceeds raised across all US IPOs in any year on record except 2021, when 311 offerings combined to raise $119.4 billion. The next closest year was 2000, when 380 deals raised $64.8 billion. (Source: University of Florida)
Push the Chips In. The Bank of America Global Fund Manager Survey found that a net 50% of fund managers were overweight equities in May, up from just 13% in April. The 37-percentage-point jump was the largest monthly swing in the survey’s history, surpassing the prior record set in July 2019. (Source: Axios)
Dot-Com vs. AI. The AI Boom, since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, has continued to mirror the Dot-Com Boom that began with Netscape’s release in December 1994. At 865 trading days out, the Nasdaq is up 140% versus a 150% gain at the same point in the 1990s, putting the current period at the equivalent of May 1998. (Source: Bespoke)
AI Capex Goes Wild. The four U.S. companies spending the most on capex this year – Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta – now plan to spend over $700 billion, nearly double 2025’s total and $100 billion more than they projected before their Q1 earnings reports. (Source: Sherwood News)
Home Equity Cushion. Even though affordability for potential homebuyers remains stretched, existing U.S. homeowners collectively hold 72% equity in their homes. That’s a level not seen since 1960 and up sharply from the record low of just over 45% in early 2012, providing a significant cushion for consumer finances. (Source: Federal Reserve)
Frequent Flyer Miles. The San Francisco 49ers will play in the first-ever NFL Australia game, and as a result, will break the league’s all-time travel record, topping 38,100 miles while logging 58 time zone crossings in 2026. By contrast, the Carolina Panthers will travel the least at just 8,740 miles, crossing only six time zones, and venturing no farther west than Minneapolis. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that sounds like a major disadvantage. (Source: CBS Sports)
Markets / Economy
- Markets keep pushing higher, even in the face of inflation and some renewed flare-ups in Iran. The S&P finished the week up 1.4%, the Nasdaq up 2.4%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 up 1.7%.
- Core PCE rose by 0.2% from the previous month in April, following a 0.3% increase in March, below market forecasts of 0.3%. From the previous year, the Core PCE rose by an expected 3.3%.
- The U.S. economy expanded an annualized 1.6% in Q1 2026, up from 0.5% in Q4 but below 2% in the advance estimate, primarily reflecting downward revisions to investment and consumer spending.
Stocks
- U.S. equities were in positive territory. Technology and Materials were the top performers, while Energy and Consumer Staples lagged. Growth stocks led value stocks, and large caps beat small caps.
- International equities closed higher for the week. Emerging markets fared better than developed markets.
Bonds
- The 10-year Treasury bond yield decreased 11 basis points to 4.45% during the week.
- Global bond markets were in positive territory this week.
- Corporate bonds led for the week, followed by government bonds and high-yield bonds.
