Apple Watch data from over 61,000 adults shows that most Americans aren’t getting enough sleep, with the average sleep duration at 6 hours and 40 minutes. However, the climate you live in can be a big influence on how much you sleep: residents in colder states tend to sleep more, whereas residents in warmer states sleep less (with a few interesting exceptions). 

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.8% while the Russell 2000 dipped 0.1% on Wednesday. The S&P 500’s finish in the green was attributable to just two companies: Alphabet and Apple, which put the stock market on their broad, multitrillion-dollar shoulders.

A soft start to September after a poor end to August has left the most important part of the stock market — everything related to AI — in a shakier state. The market has been jittery about semiconductors and data centers, but may have just found a new interest. 

First, what’s eating the AI trade?

So that’s the shakiness. But… there is hope.

Software has been something of a laggard in the world of tech over the last year, as investor dollars flocked to the sexiest — and most high-performing — hyperscalers, power providers, and electrical equipment makers poised to profit from the AI data center boom, but a change may be afoot.

Several, let’s just say it, incredibly boring business-to-business data management software companies like Datadog, Snowflake, Autodesk, and Pure Storage have had a bit of a run lately, partly driven by surprisingly strong earnings results.

Until recently, the rap on software was, essentially, that AI stood to potentially disrupt and undercut the immensely profitable “software as a service” (SaaS) industry. As a Goldman Sachs analyst wrote in a recent note titled, “Updated thoughts on the ‘Death of Software,’” the reality seems to be that large software companies are rapidly embracing AI technology themselves, adopting a hybrid strategy. Given recent fireworks following software companies’ earnings reports, it could be a profitable area for investors to watch.

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On the first trading day of September, the market gave to me… a dip in my portfolio tree. It’s a curious phenomenon: over the past 45 years, September has been the only month when the S&P 500 Index has averaged a loss, as you can see in this chart. While it’s one thing to know September is weak on average, it’s another to see how often the month really goes south.

Why September trends this way is puzzling. Intuitively, it shouldn’t matter what month it is — but the phenomenon has held going back to the 1930s. Some theories why include:

Other ideas include diminishing daylight making markets droop, IPO seasonality, and pop psychology making investors turn fears into reality. Basically, if traders are expecting a bad month, they’re more likely to flee their positions at the first sign of bad news. Markets see a similar pressure in May as some traders take to heart the adage, “Sell in May and go away.”

The second trading day of September saw the S&P 500 close a bit up, so it’s far too early to say whether this is another case of the curse, but the reality is that seasonal influences are only ever going to be very marginal. If the economy roars, inflation cools, AI makes a breakthrough, and geopolitical tensions abate, expect stocks to soar no matter what the calendar says. 

For those hoping Google’s monopoly case would bring big change to Big Tech, Tuesday’s ruling was a severe disappointment. As Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives titled his note following the decision: “Government Folds Like Cheap Suit.” But that doesn’t mean the landscape hasn’t changed for Google and especially for competitors like Apple and OpenAI.

Go deeper.

What is the only Oscars moment of this decade to make the top 15 most viewed clips on the Oscars’ YouTube channel?

Hint: It’s *not* The Slap, which the Oscars does not feature on its YouTube channel.

Check your answer. 

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