On Retailers, Small Caps & AI Powered Brains

Retailers’ earnings reports offer a window into recent consumer behavior. Tariff-related uncertainty hasn’t slowed consumer discretionary spending and perhaps has buoyed it, but consumers do seem reluctant to make big purchases requiring financing, Jackie reports. … Also: Small-cap stocks have been outpacing their larger counterparts in recent weeks for the first time in a long while. A look at why. … And: Brain-computer interfaces, controlled by thought, aren’t just the stuff of sci-fi: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others have firms working on implantable AI devices that operate alongside human brains. The merging of humans and AI is inevitable, says Altman; but when it happens, will humans retain the upper hand?