Good morning and good luck to anyone going to an airport today: Almost 10,000 flights into, out of, or within the US have been delayed over the last two days, per FlightAware, as staffing issues and the government shutdown stretch on. Today we’re exploring:

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The US now accounts for 20 of the world’s 25 most valuable companies — Europe only has one

The global corporate leaderboard is increasingly dominated by US firms, so much so that 80% of the world’s largest 25 companies are based in America. Conversely, Europe has just one single entrant squeaking onto the list — Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML, which lands at No. 25, according to data from CompaniesMarketCap.com.

Zooming out, the world's top 100 list also skews heavily towards North America: 58 US companies, and two from Canada, make up $40.1 trillion in market value, far more than the rest of the regions combined.

The main driver behind that dominance is the US-centric AI boom, with Big Tech’s eight biggest leaders, or the BATMMAAN stocks, now collectively worth a staggering $22.5 trillion.

Europe, by contrast, lacks comparable hyperscalers or chip designers to ride that AI wave. Its corporate heavyweights instead lean into luxury retail (LVMH, Hermès), industrials (Siemens, Shell), and pharmaceuticals (Roche, AstraZeneca) — slower-growth sectors compared to tech. And Novo Nordisk is the latest name to add to the continent’s woes: once Europe's crown jewel, the pharma giant has erased more than 60% of its market value since its peak last year, as the Ozempic maker faces rising competition.

The transatlantic chasm has only widened over the past decade. According to PwC, the combined market value of US companies among the top 100 was 2.6x Europe's in March 2015, 4.5x in March 2020, and 7.6x in March 2025. At the time of writing, that gap has now grown to almost 9x.

Of course, valuations don't tell the full story, as they reflect expectations as much as, if not more than, earnings. In fact, the S&P 500 has never been this expensive, trading at ~23x forward earnings, near dot-com era highs, while Europe's STOXX 600 trades at roughly 15x.

Read in full on the web instead

Say it quietly, but 2025 could be the best year for the box office since before the pandemic

After another pretty solid weekend at the box office — where Taylor Swift’s marketing-event-meets-extended-music-video “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” won out, having taken a whopping $34 million at home and a further $16 million overseas — whispers are circulating that 2025 could become the biggest box office year of the post-pandemic era.

One blockbuster after another

With a sequel-packed slate in the final months of the year, “Wicked” and “Zootopia” follow-ups land in November and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” drops the week before Christmas, it would take some pretty big flops for this year not to become the first to break through the $9 billion barrier since 2019. Indeed, 2025 is already roughly tracking the previous post-pandemic watermark set two years ago, even before we welcome witches, cartoon animal cops, and the Na’vi back to America’s silver screens.

Thanks to huge hits earlier in the year like “A Minecraft Movie,” which was jockeyed into theaters in April and went on to gross about $424 million in North America, and “Lilo and Stitch,” which came a month later and grossed almost exactly the same, per Box Office Mojo figures, the total domestic tally for the year had already ballooned to almost $6.5 billion by the end of September.

There have been a handful of standout success stories in the world of original filmmaking, not least from the horror genre, where “Weapons” and “Sinners” both captured moviegoers’ attention. However, this year (like most recent ones before it) has been broadly defined by studios cashing in on old ideas, with just one entry in the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2025 that isn’t a remake, a follow-up, or a work based on existing intellectual property... even before the upcoming trifecta of part twos and threes.

Of course, if you adjust for inflation — considering ticket prices are 20% to 25% higher than they were in 2019 — the big picture figures don’t look so dazzling.

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The little-known coin that crept into the cryptocurrency top 5

It’s one of the top five largest cryptocurrencies in the world by market cap.¹ It runs its own smart contract ecosystem, it’s a deflationary asset,² and it lets you farm yields.³ 

Binance Coin (BNB) probably hasn’t come to mind — because almost no American brokerage account allows you to own it directly. But BNB is quietly becoming a powerhouse crypto asset.

But there’s another way to get BNB exposure. The leadership at publicly-traded CEA Industries (NASDAQ: BNC) combines deep crypto expertise and traditional finance experience — and they’ve decided to base the company’s treasury strategy on BNB.⁴ That means an investment in CEA Industries provides indirect exposure to one of the world’s largest and most widely used cryptocurrencies.

Learn more about how CEA Industries is creating an accessible investment opportunity for BNB, a multibillion-dollar asset Wall Street still ignores.⁵

Gold smashes past $4,000 an ounce, cementing its dominance over stocks across the last 1, 5, 10, and 25 years

All that glitters is gold... especially in today’s market.

On Tuesday, the precious metal climbed above $4,000 per troy ounce for the first time, fueled by worries on inflation, soaring debt piles, the decline of the dollar, and geopolitical volatility (among other reasons).

Long considered a safe haven asset, gold bullion surpassed $1,000 during the financial crisis, $2,000 through the pandemic, and the $3,000 threshold in March, just ahead of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. More recently, both central banks and individual investors have been piling into gold, with still-stubborn US inflation, Fed cuts, and the ongoing US government shutdown encouraging investors to diversify their exposure away from USD — extending a rally that has sent prices up more than 50% this year.

With this latest run, the simple price return of gold now outshines that of the S&P 500 index across 1, 5, 10, and 25 years (note: dividends not included).

So, where do we go from here?

Looking ahead, some of Wall Street has mixed thoughts on gold. Bank of America analysts see the potential for “uptrend exhaustion” that could lead to “a consolidation or correction” in the fourth quarter, with many banks’ price forecasts lagging the price action of the last few weeks. Goldman Sachs analysts, however, chimed in with a still bullish note this week, hiking their end-of-2026 target price to $4,900 from $4,300, citing central bank and ETF demand.

Read this on the web instead

Almost no US brokerage account allows you to own it directly. But BNB is a top 5 cryptocurrency by market cap.¹ CEA Industries (NASDAQ: BNC) is basing its treasury strategy on it⁴ — so now, everyday public market investors can get BNB exposure.⁵

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Off the charts: Which US fast-food chicken giant — which scored third-lowest for friendliness in a recent survey — had Welsh people queuing for up to 18 hours when it landed in Swansea at the end of last week? [Answer below]. 

Answer in chart here.

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1 Please see website for further market cap information. 

2 Please see articl