For more than a decade, US stocks sat upon the Iron Throne thanks in large part to Big Tech’s dominance. But, like cupcake-only bakeries in strip malls, US stocks may have hit a saturation point: Concerns about tariffs, layoffs, and rising prices have investors seeking greener pastures in international markets that had long lagged behind America’s, according to the Financial Times.

Over the past six months, the S&P 500 is up only 4% compared to Germany’s DAX (+20%), France’s CAC (+10%), the UK’s FTSE 100 (+5%), and the European-wide STOXX 600 (+8.5%), the FT reported.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is doing the best of all, up 23% so far in 2025 with help from tech company Alibaba, which recently released an AI reasoning model to rival DeepSeek’s, and automaker BYD, which has outperformed Tesla to become the world’s largest EV-maker.

The investment world turned upside down

Europe is engaged in a defense spending spree now that the Trump administration has essentially told the Continent, “You’re on your own, kid,” regarding its security going forward. European leaders plan to increase their defense budgets by hundreds of billions of euros.

The US dollar is 4% below its post-election high in January. Another traditional financial haven, long-term Treasuries, have also lost their luster. The head of the Amundi Investment Institute told Bloomberg that the yen and gold were surer bets.

Will it stick? It’s still early in the year, and investors don’t know whether this is a blip or a turning point. In an interview that aired on Fox on Sunday, President Trump remained committed to his policies but acknowledged there could be some economic turbulence, saying: “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. It takes a little time.”—HVL

Tesla dealerships, chargers, and vehicles vandalized by Musk detractors. At least six different events at Tesla locations resulted in damaged property and/or arrests this month alone, according to CBS. They include a Maryland dealership tagged with “No Musk” graffiti and “a sign that resembles a swastika,” and seven Tesla Superchargers in Littleton, MA, being intentionally set on fire. The incidents come as Elon Musk’s involvement in the federal government deepens and some critics resort to violence against his business interests. On Saturday, a protest involving 350 people at a Tesla showroom in Manhattan resulted in six arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct. That event was part of the nationwide “Tesla Takedown” movement, in which most demonstrations have remained peaceful. Yesterday, Musk posted on X, “Heartfelt thanks to everyone supporting @Tesla, despite many attacks against our stores and offices ”

Canada’s new leader is Mark Carney. JPow’s post-Fed career prospects have never looked brighter. Yesterday, Canada’s Liberal Party elected Mark Carney, a former central banker for the country, to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. With a trade war brewing, it’s perhaps not surprising that a finance guy won. Only about 150,000 registered and verified Liberal voters participated in this election, but all Canadian voters will be eligible for the next general election, which must take place by October 20. A few weeks ago, it seemed certain that Canada’s discontent with Trudeau would translate to the Liberals losing this year’s general election. But since President Trump announced tariffs on Canada, the party has experienced a resurgence.

A US government shutdown is looming on March 14. That is, unless Congress can pass at least a short-term spending measure—but even that will be no small feat. On Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed a 99-page continuing resolution that would fund the government through September. It proposes a $20 billion cut on IRS enforcement and increases for the Defense Dept. and deportation efforts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other line items. House Republicans hold a four-seat majority (218–214) and, according to an analysis by ABC, can only afford one defection if all House members show up and vote. President Trump urged House Republicans to vote for the bill on Truth Social; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats will not vote for it.—HVL

When companies drop vowels from their names to appeal to a younger audience, they hope the feedback will be positive. However, the response is sometimes why.

The latter applies to Scotland-based investment firm Standard Life Aberdeen, which faced ridicule in 2021 when it rebranded to abrdn. The company announced last week it was restoring its vowels but eschewing capital letters with its new iteration, aberdeen, proving that “corporate bullying,” as one aberdeen executive described it last year, works.

Chasing trends like names that are allergic to vowels—think Tumblr or Grindr—or rebranding a beloved logo has historically proven to be fraught with prblms:

• In 2009, Tropicana saw sales plummet after it went away from its iconic logo of an orange punctured with a straw. Two months later, the old logo was back.
• The app everyone still calls Twitter started as twttr in 2006 because the twitter dot com domain was taken. Six months later, the company capitalized on an opportunity to buy the domain and adjusted its name.
• Jaguar changed its logo and got skewered by many (including us), although the company hasn’t reversed course.

Sometimes you have to push through: There were jokes aplenty when Dunkin’ dropped “Donuts” from its name in January 2019, but it’s now considered one of the best rebrands. Investors seem to like it, too—the stock price has risen from around $71 on the day the new logo launched to a little more than $106 today.—DL

The mission to bring home two stranded astronauts will begin: Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been vibing at the International Space Station for so long that they missed the rise and fall of the Talk Tuah podcast, are getting closer to leaving a zero-gravity environment. NASA will launch a SpaceX capsule with their replacements on Wednesday, nine months after Williams and Wilmore left on what was originally a one-week trip. The crews will spend a week together, with the newcomers perhaps regaling the stuck astronauts about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, before Williams and Wilmore head home.

Greenland is holding an election of great interest to the US: President Trump has said he would acquire Greenland “one way or the other,” and the voting outcome of tomorrow’s general election could make that possibility more realistic, depending on which party dominates at the polls. Should the mineral-rich island ever decide to cut ties with Denmark, which granted Greenland its independence in 1953 but still controls its foreign policy and security, that could open the door for a new international partnership with the US. Although a recent poll showed that 85% of Greenlanders said “no” to the idea of becoming part of the red, white, and blue, Prime Minister Múte B. Egede said the country is not for sale but “open for business.”

A buzzy book detailing the inner workings at Facebook is out tomorrow: Careless People, a memoir by Meta’s former director of global public policy, Sarah Wynn-Williams, will give what publisher Flatiron Books is calling an “explosive” glimpse into the “appetites, excesses, blind spots, and priorities of executives Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Joel Kaplan.” Flatiron also says the book details “shocking accounts of workplace harassment and misogyny” at a time when Sandberg, who was Meta’s COO, was receiving worldwide praise for encouraging women to “Lean In.”

Everything else…

• Tomorrow marks five years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.
• US and Ukrainian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss reaching a ceasefire in the war with Russia.
• On Wednesday, the US is set to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU.
• Inflation data is out on Wednesday.
• Friday (3/14) is Pi Day.
• Don’t turn your back on anyone—the Ides of March will be here on Saturday.
• The Madness is upon us. Conference basketball tournaments are ramping up all week, with brackets for the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments dropping on Sunday.
• In religious celebrations, Purim starts on Thursday night, and Holi is on Friday.
• John Mulaney’s Netflix show—Everybody’s Live—debuts on Wednesday.

While you may be groggy this morning as you adjust to the hour of sleep stolen by our collective conception of time, most Arizonans and Hawaiians simply cannot relate. Those two states long ago opted out of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

Why’s that? Arizona experiences very hot summers, and state leaders believed that springing ahead and falling back would increase energy consumption for air conditioning. And Hawaii is close to the equator, meaning it gets plenty of sunlight without shifting time.

Noteworthy: The Navajo Nation in Arizona does observe DST. The US territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands do not.—HVL