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1. Earnings per share.

By shrinking share counts via buybacks, companies make profits look stronger on paper even when most firms show flat or declining growth.

But in September those corporate buybacks freeze. Here is the S&P with and without effects of the buybacks.

2. A proposed pay package worth up to $1 trillion for Musk.

Tesla’s share count has grown by 71% since 2015 with no buybacks or dividends to reward shareholders.

3. The existential worry about the future of software businesses in the age of AI.

Salesforce is now the largest company under a growing cloud of existential worry about the future of software businesses in the age of AI.

The ability of generative-AI services to produce workable computer code on command could theoretically kill the need for dedicated software companies, if people without coding talent can simply ask an AI chatbot to generate software for any specific task.

Salesforce shares have slumped about 25% so far this year, the worst performance of any tech company with a market cap over $100 billion, according to FactSet data.

Here is revenue growth for Salesforce.

4. Goldman says US Stock rally set to expand to small caps.

Goldman’s David Kostin sees the S&P 500 rising 6% through mid-2026, while Morgan Stanley wrote about the “next leg of the new bull market” and sees earnings growth for smaller companies turning positive.

5. European power demand at an inflection point, says Morgan Stanley.

“We expect data centres to be one of several drivers of growth in power demand in the coming years, together with broader electrification of demand.

Over 2024-30e, we expect data centers to account for ~25% of annual power demand increase in Europe.”

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