Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of some of our favorite articles over the past week. The links are mostly market-related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.

May the Force Be With You: On May 25, 1977, Star Wars premiered in just 32 theaters across the US. No one, not even creator George Lucas, could have predicted the scale of what was about to unfold. With little marketing and modest studio expectations, the film relied on word of mouth. But as lines wrapped around blocks and theaters scrambled to add more screens, it became clear this wasn’t just a movie. It was an event.

What set Star Wars apart was how it blended classic mythology, cutting-edge special effects, and a lived-in sci-fi world that felt unlike anything audiences had ever seen. Viewers were swept into a galaxy of rebels, princesses, smugglers, and Jedi, following the journey of a young Luke Skywalker. The film’s success flipped Hollywood’s model on its head, showing that merchandising, sequels, and massive fan engagement could be the engine of modern moviemaking.

That Memorial Day weekend, Star Wars exploded. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of its time, and its cultural impact is still as strong as ever decades later

AI & Technology

Still booting after all these years: The people stuck using ancient Windows computers (BBC News)
Half a century into Microsoft’s reign, its oldest ghosts still haunt the modern world, running elevators, controlling ATMs, and powering trains via software that predates many of their passengers. Despite the company’s push into AI and cloud computing, ancient Windows systems like XP, 2000, and even MS-DOS are still embedded in global infrastructure, thanks to high upgrade costs, institutional inertia, and machines too valuable, or finicky, to modernize. From hospitals and railways to art studios and woodshops, Windows has become less a brand than a background hum of civilization, obsolete, indispensable, and almost impossible to escape. [Link]

Continue reading our weekly Brunch Reads linkfest by logging in if you’re already a member or signing up for a trial to one of our two membership levels shown below!  You can cancel at any time.

It’s been a volatile year for stocks so far, but more surprising is that gold prices, which have rallied more than 25% YTD, have been even more volatile. Year to date, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) has experienced a daily move of at least 1% on 40% of all trading days compared to 37% for the S&P 500, as measured by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

The chart below shows the rolling 50-day average number of daily 1% moves in GLD over the last 20 years. The current level of 54% is modestly below the recent high of 56%, and that was the highest frequency of daily 1% moves since late 2011!  The second chart shows the same calculation for SPY over the last 20 years. While the current level of 42% is hardly extreme relative to history, earlier this month it was at 52%.

In both charts, areas where the line shifts from blue to red indicate periods when both GLD and SPY had 1%+ daily moves on more than 40% of trading days in a rolling 50-day period. The only periods in the last 20 years when both ETFs simultaneously had 1%+ daily moves over 50 days were during the Financial Crisis, late 2011 after S&P downgraded the US AAA credit rating, early 2016, Covid, and now.

The chart below shows the performance of GLD over the last 20 years, and here again, the red line indicates the periods when both GLD and SPY had 1%+ daily moves at least 40% of the time over a 50-day span. For GLD, there was no consistent pattern of performance leading up to or after these periods.

For the S&P 500, however, the pattern surrounding these occurrences was more consistent. Except the Financial crisis when elevated levels of volatility in both ETFs started just after the S&P 500’s peak and continued for most of the bear market, in the three other periods (and the current period), it wasn’t until late in the decline or after the market made its low that the average number of 1% daily moves in each ETF exceeded 40%.

Click below to watch a video from our “Get Invested” series that covers some of the benefits of long-term investing in the stock market.  To become a Bespoke client, start a trial to one of our membership options or visit our Wealth Management page for more info on how we may be of help.

While down a bit today, this week has seen a spike in long-term Treasury yields.  Given the surge in yields, there has been a shake-up in the relationship between Treasury yields and dividend yields for stocks.  As shown below, currently only 7.9% of stocks in the S&P 500 have dividend yields above the 10-year Treasury yield (4.59% at the time of writing).  Additionally, only 12.1% of stocks in the index have dividend yields above that of the 2-year Treasury (4.0%).

Of course, yield dynamics are different for different sectors.  As shown below, Real Estate has the highest percentage of stocks with dividend yields above the yield on the 10-year and 2-year.  Energy, Utilities, and Materials are the sectors with the next largest shares, whereas cyclical groups like Tech, Industrials, and Consumer Discretionary hardly have any members with dividend yields larger than Treasury yields.

At the moment, there are 40 S&P 500 stocks with higher dividend yields than the 10-year yield, and we list them below.  Two Materials stocks top the list with 9%+ dividend yields and over 20% declines on the year.

Like this post? Join our complimentary Dividend Discovery email newsletter to receive a dividend-centric post in your inbox a couple of times per week. If you’re interested in dividend stocks and ETFs, this newsletter is for you! CLICK HERE to sign up with just your email or click on the image below.