Hello! Not much else to say except Happy July 4th for tomorrow, wishing everyone a wonderful day. We'll be back on Wednesday. Today we're exploring:
Think different...
Shares in Apple finished trading just a few cents below $194 on Friday, valuing the entire company at a cool $3.05 trillion — the first company in history to close above the “3T” barrier.
The remarkable run up in Apple shares means that the company has now added a whopping $984bn in market cap just this year, equivalent to gaining the value of 12 Airbnbs, 6 Disneys, 2.3 Walmarts or 122 Ralph Laurens.
...but not too different
Famously launched from a California garage, investors are clearly confident in the ongoing longevity of the iPhone which — as we explored in May — remains the gravity at the center of the Apple galaxy. 16 years since its release, the device still pulls consumers into other Apple products like high-end accessories, music streaming, TV, tablets, laptops and, in the not-so-distant future, Apple's idea of virtual reality.
Changes to the iPhone tend to be more evolution than revolution these days, and consumers are tending to wait longer before upgrading their model. Apple has navigated the maturing market with the release of the more expensive Pro lineup in 2019, helping sales climb higher.
Of course, Apple’s not the only tech company having a good year. Shares in Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta and Tesla have all soared in 2023. But no company has had quite as dramatic an ascent as Nvidia. Shares in the company have tripled in just 6 months — making it the newest member of the $1 trillion club — fueled by bets that the company’s semiconductors will prove to be an essential cog in the AI boom.
Ruling
The highest court in the land has been busy.
The United States Supreme Court handed down a number of major rulings over the past week, rejecting the role of affirmative action in college admissions, striking down Biden’s plan to cancel ~$400bn worth of student debt, and ruling that a web designer can refuse to work for same-sex wedding clients in Colorado.
Whenever the Supreme Court makes an important ruling there is obviously a reaction online. But, although the recent rulings have grabbed headlines, online reaction has so far been only a fraction of what was recorded last summer, when the court struck down Roe V. Wade. That ruling caused an immediate spike in traffic to information on the court itself, with visitors to the Wikipedia page for the Supreme Court spiking sharply and the Roe v. Wade page itself being the most read on all of English-language Wikipedia for 5 days straight.
The rise of the 6-3 court
When Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court, the makeup of the 9 person court shifted, solidifying a 6-3 conservative majority that has become a motif of the court's decisions ever since. Indeed, independent analysis finds that 6-3 became the most common alignment in the court's previous term, with the most recent major decisions following a similar voting pattern.
Royal pennies
The Crown Estate, the property management company for the British Monarchy, announced a surge in income to £443m (~$560m) in the past financial year, an impressive 42% increase from the previous year. Little to do with the transition of power or the pomp and ceremony of the recent coronation, the recent rise is attributed mostly to renewable energy companies paying The Crown Estate — which owns the 12 nautical miles of seabed surrounding Britain — for the rights to build 6 new offshore wind farms capable of powering up to 7 million homes.
Since the reign of King George III, the monarchy has relinquished control of the Estate's revenue to the Treasury. This arrangement has relieved the monarch of various responsibilities and rights, but in exchange, the royal family receives an annual payment known as the Sovereign Grant. In recent years the Treasury has returned up to 25% of the profits back to the royal household, which could have been up to £111m this year.
Regal reserves
However, despite the rise in profit, the Government announced that this year's Sovereign Grant would be broadly unchanged at just over £86 million, with the funding formula also now under review, as the Estate is expected to benefit from a continued rise in wind power profits. £86m is a pretty penny, but with repairs at Buckingham Palace — which is undergoing a renovation costing some £369m — and the costs of both the Queen Elizabeth II funeral and the King’s coronation, total spending hit £108 million last year, meaning the Royals had to draw £21 million from reserves to fund the royal year.
• Grab it while it’s hot: Sriracha shortages are seeing some sellers list two-bottle packs for $124 on Amazon.
• Interesting list of 150 of the world's most legendary restaurants, complete with an the iconic dish from each one.
• With up to 30% of online reviews potentially being fake, US regulators are now trying to crack down on them.
• Charting how the richest top 1% have been doing over the past 200 years.
• Test if your made-up words to these shapes match everyone else’s (NYT, paywall).
Off the charts: Tesla has made big price cuts to try and keep up with the competition in recent months — but did they work? [Answer below].
