Today’s Big Story

The Dow’s Historic Day

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 40,000 points on Thursday for the first time ever

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 40,000 points for the first time ever on Thursday. That milestone, experts say, appeared implausible a little more than two years ago when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to cool an overheated economy. Just a day after the S&P 500 Index hit a fresh record, the Dow rose as high as 40,051 in early trading, before ending the day down 38.62 points, or 0.1%, closing at 39,869.38.

For investors the news of cooling inflation was a huge relief. Stubborn inflation has been one of the top challenges for an economy that otherwise is doing remarkably well. Consumer sentiment on the economy remains glum as price pressures stay stubbornly high, but the markets are showing clear signs of frothiness given the growth outlook, with high-risk assets like meme stocks making an unexpected (albeit short-lived) comeback, and Bitcoin not far from a record.

Baird analyst Ross Mayfield thinks this rally still has the strength to continue. “This has all the signs of a cyclical bull market and it’s not running out of steam as far as we can tell,” he told CNBC in an interview.

Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, told the Wall Street Journal the same. “We sort of have a bull market in lots of different things.” Stocks have rallied over the past year as the economy defied expectations and investors exulted in the possibility that innovation in AI leads to a surge in productivity. The enthusiasm around AI fed into last year’s hottest trade, the Magnificent Seven group of big tech stocks.

Of course, the Dow isn’t everything. CNN’s analyst says it’s, at best, an imperfect barometer—it’s just an index that tracks the stock market activity of 30 large American companies, from Amazon to McDonald’s to the Walt Disney Company. “But it is very old, and that’s partly why it sticks around.” And knowing that it’s up certainly doesn't hurt either, as it influences how a lot of consumers feel about overall conditions.

House GOP Shows Up for Trump

Members of Congress ‘ditch their day jobs’ to stand with the indicted former president, while legislating languishes

The Republican chairs of the powerful House Judiciary and Oversight committees slammed the Biden administration this week, accusing the president and Attorney General Merrick Garland of politicizing the justice system, reports the Washington Post. “But as Reps. Jim Jordan (of Ohio) and James Comer (of Kentucky) pilloried the White House and the Justice Department, their committees were hobbled by attendance problems.” At least five members were in New York on Thursday morning, standing behind former President Donald Trump at his criminal trial.

The trial has rapidly become an essential Trump loyalty test for Republicans to the point where it appears to have actively interfered with official business. The House Oversight Committee had to reschedule a planned markup from 11 a.m. on Thursday to 8 p.m. Many attendees are likely trying to preserve their political standing back home or position for a posting in the second Trump administration, one lawmaker told Axios. A second GOP member referred to the trial as “The Apprentice 2024”.

Among the attendees on Thursday was Rep. Matt Gaetz (of Florida), who called Trump’s hush money-related charges “a made up crime.” The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. Speaking above a crowd of hecklers, Rep. Lauren Boebert (of Colorado), said that Trump wasn’t going anywhere, “And we are not going anywhere either—we’re here to stand with him.” The Associated Press said that the split-screen scene between New York and D.C. provided one of the more vivid examples yet of “how Republicans have tossed aside the de rigueur tasks of governing in favor of the engineered spectacle of grievance, performance and outrage that powers Trump-era American politics.”

Police Resell Their Unwanted Guns

More than 52,000 of those firearms have been involved in crimes since 2006

Well, this is bizarre: Every year, thousands of guns once owned by police departments are used in crimes across the U.S., reports CBS News. Many start out as the pistol in a cop's holster, but are later sold through an opaque network of gun dealers, recirculated into the public market and eventually recovered by other law enforcement officers.

Just how many? According to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, at least 52,529 police guns have turned up at crime scenes since 2006, the earliest year provided. The Trace, in partnership with CBS, reviewed records from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the U.S. and found that many had routinely resold or traded in their used duty weapons—for discounts on new equipment and, in some cases, directly to their own officers. And those guns were later involved in shootings, domestic violence incidents and other violent crimes.

Many police departments resold their weapons while holding buyback events, which they say are important to pull guns off the street. The Philadelphia city council, for example, boasts on its website of having collected 825 guns in buybacks since 2021. But records show that the Philadelphia police department resold at least 886 guns over the past two decades, including 85 firearms between 2021 and 2022. In some cases, departments added more guns to the marketplace than they removed.

Apple’s Latest Feature Will Fight Carsickness

A useful improvement: No more getting nauseated while staring at your phone while in motion

Is Apple out of the doghouse yet for crushing creativity in their doomed iPad commercial? I hope so, because I want to talk about this clever and practical feature coming to iOS devices later this year: “Vehicle Motion Cues” uses built-in motion sensors in iPhone and iPads to reduce the risk of motion sickness when you’re reading or watching material on devices.

“Research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel",” Apple tells Car and Driver. To combat this, Vehicle Motion Cues will use sensors inside your mobile devices to overlay animated dots around the edges of your screen when the vehicle is turning, accelerating, or braking.

The dots move along with the motion of the phone or vehicle to reduce the aforementioned sensory conflict, shifting across the screen as a vehicle turns right or left or suddenly stops, “without interfering with the main content.” Considering how glued we are to our screens, this seems like such a helpful feature. While some might find it more distracting than helpful, anyone who’s gotten vertigo-level dizziness while just trying to look up a restaurant will certainly appreciate it.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Bridgerton’ + a Cucumber Mint Gimlet Cocktail

Seasons one and two of Bridgerton followed the first two novels in the series by Julia Quinn. Taking place in Regency-era London, each book is about the love story of one Bridgerton family member. Season three, however, skips to book No. 4 with the friends to lovers’ courtship of Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan.) Netflix has broken the season into two parts and the first batch of new episodes just premiered.

Slate says this season is just as much of a confection as the preceding two (or three, if you count the prequel, Queen Charlotte). “The people are gorgeous, the dresses are stunning and the trees and vines are always perfectly manicured and in bloom.” That’s kind of the problem for some. Some critics are thirsting for a different setting and different stakes. Others say this season is the series’ best yet—but not because of romance, but because the friendships and Penelope's turn as “the proper heroine the show deserves.”

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