Hi! High (cost) fashion… The 2026 Met Gala wrapped Monday night, raising a record $42 million for the Met’s Costume Institute as individual tickets reached $100,000 — up from $75,000 last year. Today we’re exploring:
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- Gear shift: Harley-Davidson’s banking biz is holding up even as its bike sales falter.
- Remembering Internet Politeness: Ask.com — formerly Ask Jeeves — just shut down.
- Career map: Where in the US can new grads get the best start in 2026?
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Harley-Davidson hopes getting “Back to the Bricks” will help turn its motorcycle business around
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Harley-Davidson is at a weird fork in the road. Sales of its traditional motorcycles, still very much the heart of the business, have been sputtering now for years, and the less said about LiveWire — the company’s electric segment where they’ve sold less than one motorcycle a day in some quarters — the better.
Luckily for investors, CEO Artie Starrs, who took the top job last October, thinks he can see a route out of the business’s current bind, hitching his hopes on cheaper models and a new “Back to the Bricks” strategy to get the 123-year-old company roaring again.
As part of the shift, the company revealed yesterday that it’s planning to cut $150 million in costs, target $350 million in EBITDA across its core business in 2027, and will focus on improving profitability for its network of exclusive dealers — a clear “competitive advantage,” per the release.
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Insurance
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Zooming out a little further, one unexpected part of the HOG biz has actually been holding up okay in recent years, despite being less thrilling than the bikes the business built its name on.
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While it shrunk in the first quarter of 2026, Harley-Davidson Financial Services — a segment that offers customers financing options for their bikes, insurance, and a branded credit card to let everyone know that while you may be participating in late-stage capitalism’s relentless spending march like everyone else, you’re actually doing so with a counter-cultural, Easy Rider vibe — was nearly a $1 billion business last year, up more than 2.6x from 2005.
In the same time frame, the amount of revenue that Harley-Davidson brings in from selling actual bikes and associated products has slipped almost 40%.
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Ask.com just quietly shut down after almost 30 years in operation
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While it’s getting easier to forget in the days of increasing chatbot dependence, people in the early digital age often took their queries to a search engine where Jeeves — a sharp-witted, sharp-dressing English butler, named for the character in P.G. Wodehouse’s early 20th century book series — would guide your way, on a site later renamed “Ask.com.” Now, one of the last remaining bastions of the wholesome early cyberspace era has politely excused himself for good.
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After being bought by InterActive Corp. (IAC) in 2005 and losing the Jeeves branding a year later, the Ask.com homepage now reads: “Every great search must come to an end... As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business.”
Founded by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California, Jeeves first appeared on the web in 1996 — a whole year before Google debuted its now-dominant search engine. Still, as is often the case for first movers in business, it wasn’t long before search-and-answer stalwarts like Alphabet’s engine and Yahoo overtook Jeeves... before now themselves getting overshadowed by AI.
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Per Google Trends data, queries for “ask jeeves” fell by ~60% between 2005-06 as it rebranded; then, searches for “πΊππ.πΌππ” saw a gradual slump from 2010-20, similar to the drop seen for “yahoo” searches. Alongside that decade-long decline, forums like Quora and Reddit became more popular — and while the former has fallen off in the ‘20s, the latter just keeps rising.
More recently, queries for AI chatbots have soared, with searches for “claude” and “gemini” soaring 670% and 450%, respectively, in the year to April 2026. But, at least among the search engines, Google reigns supreme, with the slump in searches it’s seen perhaps more to do with a late realisation that you don’t have to start by Googling “google.”
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An Alternative Gateway To Gold
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Gold is entering a new paradigm of demand.
In a recent World Gold Council survey, a record 95% of central bank representatives expected global gold reserves to increase through 2026 — and investors should take note. While many investors track gold’s spot price, less have explored the high-margin potential of the gold royalty model.
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Versamet (NASDAQ: VMET) operates with this strategy, providing capital to world-class mining projects in exchange for a percentage of production over the life of the mine. This approach allows stakeholders to bypass the operational risks of traditional mining, while maintaining exposure to the metal.
Having executed nearly $750 million in acquisitions, Versamet is anchored by high-quality assets at several stages of development and offers a diversified gateway to gold’s long-term momentum.
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Which US cities give new grads the best shot in 2026?
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For young workers fresh out of college, the lure of America’s big coastal cities has always been pretty obvious: chase the higher-paying jobs, stomach the rent, and trust the grind will eventually pay off. For the class of 2026, though, the math in that deal may be getting harder to justify, according to new analysis from ADP Research.
The study ranked 53 major US metro areas for workers in their 20s based on hiring rates, wages, and affordability. So, where can a 23-year-old realistically launch a career without having to hand half their paycheck to a landlord — or wait months just to get past the resume screening process?
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Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama, claimed the top spot, driven by strong hiring, low living costs, and median wages for recent grads that rose more than 16% to roughly $59,000 over the past year. Florida’s Tampa region jumped to No. 2 from 26th place last year, after posting the fastest hiring rate among all of the metros analyzed in the study.
Six of the top 10 metros were in the South, including areas like Raleigh, Tulsa, and Nashville — cities where corporate expansions are helping drive job growth, while the lower cost of living means that starting salaries stretch further.
Still, large coastal hubs held their ground in the top half, including San Francisco and New York. San Jose ranked third despite ongoing tech layoffs, as improved hiring and the highest wages of any metro helped offset its low affordability score.
Meanwhile, some of America’s traditional youth magnets are starting to look less appealing: San Diego and Portland both landed in the bottom 10, while Seattle ranked 38th, as hiring has cooled and housing costs continue to eat into paychecks.
Salt Lake City, Utah, finished last, weighed down by below-median wages and one of the weakest hiring rates in the study.
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- Apple is reportedly exploring Intel and Samsung as potential US chipmaking partners, as the iPhone maker looks to reduce reliance on longtime supplier TSMC.
- Airlines have cut 13,000 flights, the equivalent of almost 2 million seats, globally in May, as jet fuel prices continue to rise ahead of summer travel.
- Five-star rating: Uber investors cheered the taxi company’s Q1 earnings, which came in ahead of estimates this morning, helping to send the stock up over 10% at one point premarket.
- Coinbase said it plans to lay off 14% of its workforce, or roughly 700 employees, citing volatile crypto markets and, like others before it, a bigger push into AI.
- The song dog redemption: A coyote found on Alcatraz Island earlier this year likely swam 2 miles from nearby Angel island, a longer journey than biologists had expected.
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A record 95% of central banks expect gold reserves to increase through 2026, per a World Gold Council Survey. Versamet (NASDAQ: VMET) offers a capital-efficient way to access the metal’s long-term momentum. Discover the high-margin model.
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- Charting the crossover when US women over 40 started having more babies per person than 15 to 19 year olds.
- A great viz project on the 877 first dates that the Guardian has set up every Saturday since 2009.
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Off the charts: Which brewing giant just saw beer sales rise after three stagnant years? [Answer below].
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Advertiser’s disclosures:
IMPORTANT: HIGH-RISK INVESTMENT
Investing in mining stocks involves a high degree of risk. You could lose your entire investment.
This content is sponsored by Versamet Royalties Corporation (“Versamet Royalties”). Katusa Research (www.katusaresearch.com) has received cash compensation of one million three hundred thousand dollars from Versamet Royalties for the preparation and dissemination of this content. Katusa Research is extremely biased. Katusa Research, its owners, directors, and employees may directly or indirectly own shares of Versamet Royalties. Measures are in place such that no shares will be sold during the active marketing awareness campaign.
Katusa Research, as a publisher, is not a broker, investment advisor, or financial advisor in any jurisdiction. The information provided is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Please do not rely on the information presented as personal investment advice. If you need personal investment advice, please consult a qualified and registered broker, investment advisor, or financial advisor.
This content contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such factors include those set out under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Versamet Royalties’ final non-offering long form prospectus dated May 12, 2025 and short-form base shelf prospectus dated August 1, 2025, both available for review on the Versamet Royalties’ profile at www.sedarplus.ca, as well as the Company’s Form 20-F filed with the SEC on March 4, 2026, available for review on the Company’s profile at www.sec.gov/edgar.
There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither Katusa Research nor Versamet Royalties undertakes any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.
Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the mineral resources will be converted into mineral reserves. Inferred mineral resources have a lower level of confidence than Indicated mineral resources and must not be converted to mineral reserves. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource is economically or legally mineable.
The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant factors.
Past performance is not indicative of future results. Historical returns, including those referenced in this content, should not be taken as an indicator or predictor of future stock prices. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and investors may lose their entire investment.
Before making any investment decision, readers should review Versamet Royalties’ public filings available at www.sedarplus.ca (for Canadian filings) and www.sec.gov (for U.S. filings), including annual information forms, technical reports, and financial statements.
Information in this content regarding Versamet Royalties has been derived from its SEDAR+ and SEC filings.
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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more
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