Friday's Fast Five: Week of 6.16

Chart of the Week: Mega-Cap Mega Performs (Goldman Sachs): Mega-cap stocks have collectively outperformed the S&P 500 by 34pp YTD following moderating interest rates and an improved earnings outlook. 

AMD reveals new A.I. chip to challenge Nvidia’s dominance (CNBC): AMD said on Tuesday its most-advanced GPU for artificial intelligence, the MI300X, will start shipping to some customers later this year. AMD’s announcement represents the strongest challenge to Nvidia, which currently dominates the market for AI chips with over 80% market share, according to analysts.

Column: Short selling makes markets work better. So why do banks want to outlaw it? (Los Angele Times): The very human instinct to seek scapegoats for every crisis is playing out again on Wall Street. As so often happens, this time the target is short selling, which supposedly is helping to drive banking stocks lower. As so often also happens, the loudest cries for relief are coming from the people most responsible for the stocks’ decline — in this case, banking executives themselves.

Health insurers slammed after UnitedHealth says more surgeries driving up costs (Reuters):  Health insurer stocks dropped sharply on Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) said its costs were on the rise due to an increase in surgeries among older adults. Insurers have been benefiting from a delay in non-urgent surgeries due to the COVID-19 pandemic and hospital staffing shortages, but UnitedHealth's comments show that the gains may be waning.

Crypto Is Staging a Major Rebound. How It Survived a $3 Trillion Crash. (Barron's): On the face of it, crypto should be on life support. Fourteen years since its launch, the technology remains an experimental oddity. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars have evaporated in frauds, bankruptcies, and token losses. And trading platforms hang by a regulatory thread as governments try to reel in the crypto casino. Yet crypto is proving resilient. Led by a 60% rally in Bitcoin this year, the token market is back to where it was before FTX collapsed in November, worth an estimated $1.1 trillion.