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Apollo programmer, age 90, has died. Link here.
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The Book Page
Tonight's reading is Stephen Witt's 2025 biography of Jensen Huang. My notes are kept here for that book.
My notes here, link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/bu9MySv2HwwIn7oRw.
The AI neural network's "DNA moment" (1953) occurred at the ImageNet contest, Florence, Italy, 2012.
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Investing
From Yahoo!Invest today. The author writes that "60/40" is becoming popular again. Say what? I'm hearing the same thing on CNBC -- seasoned Wall Street analysts are getting nervous about 500% gains in the stock market and telling viewers it's safe to get back into bonds and gain a safe 5% return with inflation running only 3%. Oh, give me a break. From Yahoo!Invest today:
It seems almost quaint to talk about the halcyon days of 2023 when investors mused about the stock market's top-heaviness.
At the time, Wall Street viewed this like another moment in market history in which the day's corporate juggernauts ballooned amid their success for a while before rotating down the ladder as the next thing came along. Index owners, meanwhile, would enjoy the winnings without stressing too much about who was rotating in and out.
Such is the beauty of diversification.
But as the stock market notches a fresh record close (congratulations, everyone), Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT) represent more than a fifth of the S&P 500, over 21%. As our Brian Sozzi noted, this makes the Exxon/IBM/AT&T era look pedestrian.
The tech titans are literally behaving like the Greek Titan Atlas (the NBC Rockefeller Center statue in the "30 Rock" opening), carrying much of the market's weight and fortunes on their corporate shoulders.
Even if the numbers look a little scary, the same thing is still happening as in 2023, just even more so. A period of technological innovation is benefiting a few industries that are propping everything up.
In the long run, the same philosophy espoused by Jack Bogle and Warren Buffett that thrust the S&P 500 into investors' portfolios hasn't gone anywhere — nor has the advice that recommends having six months of living expenses liquid (a number that has risen with inflation).
But in the meantime, it's not hard to see why the 60/40 portfolio is suddenly becoming popular once again.
