Hello, Quartz members, and welcome to Sunday Reads!
With ample time to digest all those Thanksgiving leftovers (turkey tetrazzini, I’m talking about you!), it’s been an impressively busy week: Heads rolling at Intel and Stellantis, more cabinet appointees from Donald Trump, and Bitcoin is worth a caboodle of cash (for now).
Suggested Reading
4 cars that are perfect for winter, according to Edmunds — and cost less than $40,000
Microsoft's shareholders will decide this week whether to invest in Bitcoin
Costco, Oracle, GameStop, and more stocks to watch this week
But it’s Sunday, and time to shift your gaze to some hand-selected reads. Here are some of our favorite Quartz stories from the week, plus a sneak peek at one story coming next week to get your day started.
Enjoying this newsletter? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
📉 Trump slump. Markets went up. Crypto went up. Tesla gazoomed. But one stock failed to rise on Donald Trump’s election as president. Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that owns Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, have bounced from red to green and back in the past month. What’s going on? Rocio Fabbro explains.
☀️ Can Musk own dusk? One of the more obscure objectives Elon Musk has added to the list of priorities for his blue-ribbon commission on government efficiency is to do away with Daylight Saving Time. Plenty of people agree, but it would take an act of Congress to change the current rules setting the clocks ahead an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall. Nor is it clear which he wants to end: Springing forward or falling backward. Ben Kesslen shines some sunlight on the story.
⚖️ Waist not, want not: Petite portions are the newest trend in high-end dining. Across the country, Americans want smaller portions and cheaper meals. Madeline Fitzgerald looks at what’s happening.
🏡 New home? Fuggedaboutit. Home prices and mortgage rates will stay high in 2025, the National Association of Realtors predicts. Average mortgage rates will remain elevated at 6.3%, ticking down to 6.2% by the end of next year, and home prices will grow 3.7% — the 13th straight year of increases. Rocio Fabbro crunches the numbers, and the reasons why.
🪙 Crypto-crazy! Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark, but what happens next? The truth is, no one knows. You still can’t get a mortgage in crypto, and as one crypto watcher noted, “Volatility remains a factor.” Vinamrata Chaturvedi dives in.
1 sneak peek
🧠 Is AI really coming? Silicon Valley says 2025 is the year AI grows up and gets a job. Tech leaders envision armies of AI agents — autonomous digital workers that can actually get things done, not just chat. But after years of bold AI promises and mixed results, Wall Street analysts are questioning whether this trillion-dollar bet will finally pay off. Jackie Snow takes a look. Visit qz.com on Monday morning for a look at the future of everything.
What we’re watching this week
- Monday: Oracle reports earnings after the bell.
- Tuesday: The Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference; Microsoft shareholders vote on investing in Bitcoin.
- Wednesday: Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November is released; and The AI Summit New York begins.
- Thursday: Costco reports earnings after the bell.
- Friday: Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurant Group reports earnings.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, joy, or news of the next government program in Elon’s sights. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Peter S. Green.