Wealth Management News & Insights – June 1, 2025

Wealth Management News & Insights

Yes – You Have Too Much Money in That One Hot Stock, Some Sneaky Fees Can No Longer Hide, How Hollywood Finds Its Stars

Primary Sources

• App Store in the U.S. Facilitated Over $400 Billion in Developer Billings and Sales in 2024: Over the last five years, the size of the App Store ecosystem has nearly tripled from $142 billion in 2019 to $406 billion last year, and earnings for U.S.-based developers also more than doubled. [Apple]

Financial Markets

• Yes, You Have Too Much Money in That One Hot Stock: Even sophisticated institutions sometimes fall into the trap of putting an unhealthy number of investing eggs in one basket. [WSJ]
• Movie Theater Stocks Soar After Record-Breaking Memorial Day Box Office: AMC, Cinemark and Marcus Theatres each posted their best Memorial Day Weekend hauls of all time, as well as record food and beverage sales for the holiday. [CNBC]
• Ulta Tops Estimates as Beauty Demand Bucks Consumer Pullback: Ulta Beauty Inc.’s first-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates, signaling that shoppers are keeping up with non-essential beauty purchases despite growing economic concerns. [Crain’s]

The table above outlines Google’s upcoming AI product roadmap. Key features include enhanced AI reasoning, personalized search context, deep search capabilities, complex data analysis, agent capabilities, etc.

Financial Planning

• American Homes Are Shrinking. Why Are They Still So Unaffordable?: More starter homes are being built, but the situation isn’t a return to the 1950s. [WSJ]
• Is It Cheaper, or More Expensive, to Travel Now? Both, It Turns Out: How falling airfares and foreign exchange rates influence where to look for deals this summer. [NYT]
• Some Sneaky Fees Can No Longer Hide. But Watch Out for Others: Resort fees, cleaning fees, service fees: Those charges now must be disclosed upfront. But the fight against “junk fees” is far from over. [NYT]

Business Strategy

• Salesforce Strikes $8 Billion Deal for Informatica: Deal is a move by Salesforce to bolster its artificial-intelligence capabilities. [WSJ]
• Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s Beauty Brand, Sells in Billion-Dollar Deal: E.L.F. Beauty acquired Mrs. Bieber’s cosmetics brand for $800 million in cash and stock upfront, with another $200 million contingent on future growth. [NYT]
• New Stellantis CEO – The Water-Polo Player Charged with Keeping Fiat and Jeep Afloat: Sergio Marchionne protégé Antonio Filosa inherits a group which suffered a 70% plunge drop in net profits in 2024. [FT]
• Southwest Airlines Sets Baggage Fees: Until now, it was the only major U.S. airline that allowed passengers to check two bags at no extra cost. On May 28, most passengers will start paying $35 for their first bag. [NYT]
• Streamers Are Finally Making Money. For Consumers, It’s Getting Messier: Media companies are seeing financial bright spots in their streaming businesses, but navigating the options is still tough for consumers. [WSJ]

The chart above shows the increasing trend in average streaming subscriptions per U.S. households that subscribe to at least one paid service. The average number of streaming subscriptions has risen to almost 5 in recent years.

Life & Work

• Do I Need to Refrigerate Ketchup? An A-to-Z Guide to Storing Condiments: Soy sauce? Peanut butter? Maple syrup? Settle some scores with this breakdown. [NYT]
• For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here: The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has jumped as companies try to replace entry-level workers with artificial intelligence. [NYT]
• The Latest Trend in High-End Hotels? ‘Shoebox’ Rooms: To entice solo and budget-minded travelers, luxury lodgings are betting big on rooms that skimp on size but not on style. [WSJ]
• A Sweet and Savory Road Trip in Northern Michigan: After a drive through this bountiful area of Grand Traverse Bay, your car will overflow with organic fruit and vegetables, freshly caught whitefish, baked goods and more. Just don’t forget to bring a cooler. [NYT]
• How Hollywood Finds Its Stars: Behind the scenes with casting directors, the most important and least understood job in movies. [Variety]