Hi! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y… Shrey Parikh was crowned the winner of the National Spelling Bee last night, rounding out his six-year competitive career by spelling 32 words correctly during a 90-second quickfire tiebreaker. Today we’re exploring:

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The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “Take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — got subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury carmaker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce. The company’s CEO Benedetto Vigna has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, yesterday saying it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters. 

Compared to the cost of an average Ferrari last year, that innovation tax seems to amount to about $140,000…

To work out the average price of a Ferrari car each year, we took the company’s revenue from selling cars and car parts and divided it by the annual vehicle deliveries figure — and, unfortunately for Ferrari, it does make the Luce look pretty expensive. At nearly twice the price of an average Ferrari as recently as 2022, the new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.

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Depending where you are in the US, up to half of World Cup matches kick off during the workday

Employers have spent years fighting return-to-office battles, wondering who’s actually present in camera-off calls, and trying to squeeze more productivity out of meeting-packed calendars. This summer, they may be tackling a different problem with people showing up, as the world’s biggest sporting event kicks off, perhaps bringing with it a wave of questionably timed sickness bugs.

Injury time?

This week, Business Insider reported that workers are already looking for ways to bend their workdays around the World Cup once the tournament begins on June 11, citing a UKG survey of 8,000 workers across eight countries. One-third of respondents said they were likely to take at least one day off for the World Cup, while a quarter expected to miss part of a workday. The same 25% share said they’d “push the limits” of what their managers would tolerate.

The workplace disruption could be especially visible in North America, where the tournament will be hosted in 16 cities across the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Of the 104 matches played over a record 39 days, roughly one in three will kick off on a weekday from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. Eastern Time. The farther west you go, the less work-friendly the schedule gets: about 40% of the tournament falls inside Central office hours, and exactly half lands inside the West Coast workday.

FIFA said that the finalized kickoff schedule was designed in part to reach “the widest possible global audience.” That consideration might not be great for American employers, as some workers tune in, duck out, or call in sick.

Read the full story with an interactive chart on the web

How to invest in the space economy

The commercial space market is developing beyond a narrow theme into an entire ecosystem with multiple layers of economic activity. Falling launch costs are unlocking scale to establish real-world scale across communications, satellite systems, and data networks. The sector is moving beyond initial exploration and transitioning into a foundational network that actively supports daily commercial applications.

The VanEck Space Economy ETF (WARP) provides pure-play exposure to the companies building the growing space economy. As launches become increasingly affordable and accessible, space is beginning to look less like science fiction and more like the next major economic platform.

Drake overtakes Michael Jackson for most No. 1 hit songs by a male solo artist

When Drake dropped a trio of studio albums without warning on May 15, he’d already made music history as the first artist to hold the top three slots on the Billboard album chart at once. Now, the Canadian rapper has just claimed “one of the most triumphant weeks” in the history of the Hot 100 singles chart, per Billboard, after adding nine new songs to the top 10 to bring his career total to 90. 

Moreover, with single “Janice STFU” debuting at the top spot, Drake has officially dethroned Michael Jackson, with whom he’d been tied since 2023, to become the solo male artist with the most No. 1 songs of all time — finally overtaking his idol thanks to an album with Jackson’s $120,000 glove on the cover.

Started from the bottom...

Drake’s latest chart-topper places the “Hotline Bling” rapper alongside two female solo artists who have notched 14 No. 1s: his Apple ad collaborator Taylor Swift and rumored ex-girlfriend Rihanna. 

But, even with Drake’s 16-year span of No. 1s, he’ll need to be prolific for a lot longer to surpass the output of the legendary (and still timely) band The Beatles, as well as Mariah Carey — the front-runner of all solo artists, with a whopping 19 No. 1 hits, including a festive classic that alone has topped the Billboard chart 22 times.

According to Billboard, The Beatles have had 20 No. 1 songs in the Hot 100 chart; of those songs, 11 are thought to be written primarily by Paul McCartney, who has nine additional No. 1s as a solo artist.

Still, some suspicious-minded fans might have spotted one notable absence in the male solo category. As Billboard pointed out, Elvis’ breakthrough predated the launch of the Hot 100 chart in 1958, leaving his count at seven No. 1 songs.

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The space economy is expanding across data, satellite, and defense applications. Discover how lower costs are opening up opportunities in the space economy. Read the full VanEck analysis on the VanEck Space Economy ETF (WARP) to learn more.

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Off the charts: Which dessert chain could be going public again after accounting for nearly half of the group’s sales last year? [Answer below]. 

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