Together with Public
Happy Thursday, everyone!
As the sprint toward summer continues, it’s important to stay in touch with the market.
Let’s dive into everything you should be watching!
A quick breakdown — in case you don’t have the time.
⭐ Growth stocks are dominating at historic levels.
⭐ We broke down our favorite passive income strategy for 2026.
⭐ Earnings growth is accelerating again.
⭐ Inflation is rising faster than wages.
⭐ Joby continues to gain attention post-NYC flights & positive earnings report.
Market Overview
As of market open, 5/14/26
ETF Winners & Losers
Chart of the Week
Growth stocks are dominating at historic levels.
The S&P 500 Growth Index has now outperformed the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index by more over the last six weeks than at any point on record. That’s an incredible momentum surge — and one that reflects just how aggressively investors are crowding back into AI, semiconductors, software, and higher-beta growth names.
Historically, these types of extreme momentum bursts tend to occur during periods of intense market enthusiasm. We saw similar setups during the post-COVID rebound in 2020 and again during parts of 2025. But the chart also highlights another important comparison: March 2000, right near the peak of the Dot-Com Bubble.
To be clear, this does not automatically mean the bull market is ending. Strong momentum can persist much longer than most investors expect. But when growth stocks start posting returns that resemble prior speculative peaks, it’s usually a sign that positioning and sentiment are becoming increasingly stretched.
Momentum remains incredibly powerful right now — but risk management matters more when markets start behaving exceptionally rather than normally.
Today’s Rich Habits Newsletter is brought to you by Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build your portfolio for the long haul with stocks, options, bonds, crypto, and more.
Beyond the assets, Public integrates AI in ways that are actually useful. You can get real-time context on why a stock you care about is moving, instant earnings call summaries—you can even build a custom index from a prompt.
In Case You Missed It…
In this week’s Monday-morning episode of the Rich Habits Podcast (linked here) — Austin and Robert break down one of the hottest investing trends of 2026: covered call ETFs.
With investors chasing double-digit yields and monthly cash flow, this episode explains how these strategies actually work, why some funds dramatically outperform others, and where covered call ETFs realistically belong inside a portfolio.
Here’s what they covered…
How Covered Calls Generate Income — Covered call strategies work by owning stocks and selling options against them in exchange for premium income. Investors collect cash flow today, but the tradeoff is capped upside if the market rallies too aggressively.
Why Covered Call ETFs Exploded in Popularity — These ETFs allow everyday investors to access institutional-style options strategies without needing hundreds of thousands of dollars to build them manually. Instead of managing options yourself, the ETF handles the process and distributes the income monthly.
JEPI vs. XYLD vs. SPYI — While all three use covered calls, the differences under the hood are massive. Strike prices, option structures, tax treatment, and upside capture all dramatically impact long-term returns and after-tax income.
Yield Isn’t the Same as Return — A 12% yield doesn’t automatically mean you made 12%. Some funds sacrifice too much growth or slowly lose share price over time, making total return far more important than the headline distribution rate.
Who These ETFs Are Actually For — Covered call ETFs tend to make the most sense for retirees, pre-retirees, or investors focused on generating predictable monthly cash flow. For younger investors, they’re typically a smaller “income sleeve” rather than the core growth engine of a portfolio.
The bigger message: covered call ETFs aren’t magic — they’re a tradeoff. Understanding what you’re giving up for monthly income is the key to using them correctly.
Here’s a link to the Q&A episode that was posted on Thursday.
You can submit questions for these episodes by asking them inside of the Rich Habits Network, replying to this email, or sending us a DM on Instagram.
The Rich Habits Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, YouTube, and wherever else you get your content!
Austin’s Callout
Earnings growth is accelerating again.
S&P 500 companies are now reporting 27.7% year-over-year earnings growth for Q1 2026, the strongest earnings season since Q4 2021. The results continue to reinforce one of the biggest themes driving this market higher: corporate America — especially anything tied to AI infrastructure, semiconductors, cloud computing, and software — is still growing much faster than many expected.
Information Technology is leading the way with earnings growth above 50%, while communication services and materials are also posting massive gains. Even more impressive, roughly 84% of S&P 500 companies have beaten EPS estimates so far this quarter — the highest beat rate since 2021.
At the same time, the earnings picture remains uneven beneath the surface. Defensive sectors like healthcare are still seeing negative earnings growth, while energy earnings have nearly stalled out entirely despite elevated oil prices.
This earnings season continues to justify why investors have aggressively crowded into growth and AI-related names. As long as earnings momentum remains this strong, it becomes much harder to argue the market rally is being driven purely by speculation.
I’ll be sharing my fresh perspective on the market during this upcoming Tuesday evening livestream. Sign up for the Rich Habits Network and join us!
Robert’s Callout
Inflation Is rising faster than wages.
U.S. CPI inflation has officially climbed to 3.8%, its highest level since May 2023, as surging oil and gasoline prices continue working their way through the economy. In just the last six months, U.S. gas prices have jumped roughly 65%, putting renewed pressure on household budgets nationwide.
One of the most important developments here is that inflation is now growing faster than wages again for the first time in nearly three years. That means many Americans are effectively losing purchasing power, even if their paychecks are still increasing on paper.
This helps explain why consumer sentiment has collapsed to record lows despite the labor market remaining relatively stable. Consumers may still have jobs, but higher costs for energy, transportation, and everyday necessities are eating away at disposable income.
The bigger concern for markets and the Fed is that this type of inflation is much harder to control. Energy-driven inflation acts like a tax on the economy — slowing consumer spending while simultaneously keeping price pressures elevated. How the Fed responds to inflation over the coming months will be critical to the market’s overall sentiment.
Join us in the Rich Habits Network as we break down the most important market trends each and every week!
The Rich Habits Radar
👉 Joby continues to gain attention post-NYC flights & positive earnings report.
👉 Nebius stock soared, revenue jumps 684% on booming data center demand.
👉 Trump invited a big CEO roster to China, including Musk, Cook, and Huang.
👉 Anduril raised $5B in fresh funding, doubling its valuation to $61B.
👉 Hims fell after earnings miss & its weight-loss drug pivot pressured profits.
👉 Nvidia hit fresh all-time highs, first company to hit a $5.5T market cap.
👉 Micron extended +88% 1-month rally on extreme AI memory demand.
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or a recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Disclosure: This content is sponsored by NEOS Investments. The creator is compensated by NEOS to discuss NEOS ETFs. This content is for informational purposes only, and is not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice, and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell any security. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Before investing, carefully review the NEOS ETFs prospectus at neosfunds.com.