China, Small Caps & AI

China’s economic malaise has impacted the bottom lines of US-based multinational companies that do business there. Jackie sums up the effects reported and expected for the rest of the year by two such companies, Air Products & Chemicals and Estée Lauder. The former’s top brass appears more pessimistic on the outlook for China than the latter’s. … Also: Large-capitalization stocks have outperformed their smaller-cap peers since October 2022. Chalk up the divergence to their respective sector exposures. … And in our Disruptive Technologies spotlight this week: building the better AI. Competitors Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft vie for AI offering superiority.