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Three Big Tech companies have had an outsize impact on first-quarter profit performance.

Money never lays idle, which means wealth never lays idle, which means credit never lays idle. If there’s production, there’s credit.

Volatility is back. Investors are watching their portfolios swing on AI fears, geopolitical tension, and rate uncertainty. And many are wondering if this is finally the moment the world’s most famous value investor starts buying.Warren Buffett has an answer. It is not the one most people are hoping for.What Buffett said about market declines and the right time to buy”Three times since I’ve taken over Berkshire, it’s gone down more than 50%,” Buffett said in a recent CNBC interview. “This is nothing.”He was referring to the 2026 market pullback. The volatility rattling most investors barely registers on Buffett’s scale. He has lived through crashes that make the current environment look calm by comparison.His message on deploying capital was equally direct. “If there is a big decline, we will deploy capital,” Buffett said. The operative word is “big.” A mild correction does not qualify.Berkshire’s $373 billion opportunityBerkshire Hathaway is sitting on $373 billion in cash and Treasury bills. That is not an accident. It is a deliberate accumulation built over years of disciplined inaction during expensive markets.In Buffett’s framework, cash is not dead weight. It is optionality. More Warren Buffett:One of Warren Buffett’s dividend stocks is key to reopening Strait of HormuzGreg Abel sends Berkshire investors a powerful new signalWarren Buffett’s Berkshire warns Americans on housing marketIt allows Berkshire to act when others cannot, to buy high-quality assets at distressed prices when fear forces indiscriminate selling. That moment has not arrived.Buffett has historically made his biggest moves during genuine market distress. Not 10% slumps, but events such as the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid crash — moments when liquidity dried up and asset prices disconnected from underlying value. That is what he is waiting for.Why the current dip is not enough for BuffettEven after the pullback, many parts of the market are still trading above their historical averages. Lower prices are not the same as cheap prices. That is the core of Buffett’s reluctance.The Buffett Indicator makes this point clearly. It compares total U.S. stock market capitalization to GDP and currently sits at about 227%. Buffett once described a reading above 200% as “playing with fire.” The current level is well above that threshold.The indicator does not predict when the market turns. But at 227%, even a meaningful pullback might not bring valuations to levels Buffett would consider genuinely attractive. That is the uncomfortable math behind his patience.The psychology most investors get wrongBuffett’s inaction is itself a signal. He is one of the most informed investors alive. His network, his experience, and his capital give him access to opportunities unavailable in public markets. And he is still choosing to wait.Most investors operate on a different instinct. When markets rise, they buy aggressively. When prices fall, they panic. When there is a modest dip, they treat it as an opportunity without questioning whether valuation supports that conclusion.Buffett treats the urge to stay fully invested as a weakness to manage, not a signal to follow. He is comfortable doing nothing when markets are expensive. That comfort is rare, and it is a large part of why Berkshire has outperformed for decades.Key context on Berkshire and market valuations:Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio value: Approximately $272 billion as of the most recent filing, making it one of the largest equity portfolios in the world, according to Barchart.Berkshire’s top holding: Apple represents roughly 28% of the equity portfolio, Barchart noted.S&P 500 forward P/E ratio as of April 2026: Approximately 21x, still above the long-run historical average of 16x.Buffett has not made a major acquisition since Alleghany Corporation in 2022, reflecting four consecutive years of market conditions he has not found compelling enough to act on.

The world’s most-watched investor just passed on what many are calling a buying opportunity.Goodney/Getty Images

What Buffett’s wait-and-see approach means for ordinary investorsBuffett operates at a scale most investors cannot replicate. He has access to private deals, preferred stock arrangements, and negotiated terms unavailable in public markets. His patience is enabled by a $373 billion war chest that most portfolios cannot sustain.But his message is still relevant. The lesson is not to sit on enormous cash piles waiting for a crash. The lesson is to think more critically about what you are actually buying when you treat a dip as an automatic opportunity.A market that has fallen 10% from an expensive peak is still an expensive market. Buffett’s refusal to act is a reminder that valuation matters more than momentum. The best time to buy is not when prices dip, but when prices disconnect from real value.What it would take to change Buffett’s mindBuffett has not said he will never buy. He has simply said the current decline is not enough. That distinction matters. He is not predicting a crash or telling investors to exit. He is saying Berkshire’s standard for deploying capital has not been met.What meets that standard? History suggests genuine fear, forced selling, and prices that reflect panic rather than recalibration. A volatile but fundamentally supported market does not create that environment. A liquidity crisis, a credit event, or sharp economic deterioration might.Until then, Berkshire’s $373 billion stays put. For investors watching one of the most disciplined allocators in history choose to do nothing, that is as clear a signal as any about where we are in the current cycle.Related: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shares mortgage warning

Figure’s $1 billion month capped a years-long push to strip out middlemen from credit markets, bringing real-world assets, lending and even equities onchain.

For most of automotive history, the headlight was a solved problem. Two beams, a switch, maybe a fancy lens.Then the rest of the world stopped treating the front of a car as just a place to put lights. Europe got matrix beams that paint around oncoming traffic. Japan got laser headlamps that throw light a quarter mile down the road. America got an updated rulebook — finally, in 2022.The U.S. only finalized a rule allowing adaptive driving beam headlights, the kind that automatically dim parts of the high beam to spare oncoming drivers, in February 2022, “more than a year and a half ahead of schedule,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That decision came nine years after Toyota first petitioned for the technology.By the time U.S. regulators caught up, automakers across the Pacific had already moved on. At the Beijing Auto Show (April 24-May 3), Huawei demonstrated headlights that can project a full-color movie onto the wall in front of a parked car, like a private drive-in theater.What Huawei’s XPixel headlights actually doHuawei’s XPixel system is not entirely new. Earlier monochrome versions have been on the road in China for about three years, with vehicles such as the Stelato S9 already using them, according to InsideEVs. What changed at the Beijing Auto Show is the addition of full-color projection, turning the front of a car into something close to a portable cinema.The demos showed more than entertainment. The system ties directly into driver-assistance software, drawing a guided lane-change path on the road or signaling pedestrians when it is safe to cross. Huawei has even shown the lights projecting hopscotch grids for kids playing near a parked car.Related: Tesla’s biggest Chinese rival just got hit by an ugly realityThe full-color version will debut on the Aito M9 sport-utility, with the upcoming Qijing GT7 shooting brake and Luxeed V9 minivan close behind.For an American driver, none of this is hitting your local Ford (F) or Chevy lot any time soon. The U.S. effectively bans the import of Chinese-made passenger EVs through tariffs of more than 100%, so the cars carrying this hardware are not available here. The system is also tightly licensed by Huawei to local Chinese OEMs, which makes copying it without a deep partnership difficult.When I read the InsideEVs writeup and watched a clip of the demo, what struck me was not the gimmick. It was the timing. The same week U.S. regulators were still working through follow-up petitions on the 2022 adaptive headlight rule, the Beijing show was treating projection-capable headlights as a near-term option on a sport-utility you can already buy.

Huawei’s XPixel headlights can project your favorite movie.Photo by JADE GAO on Getty Images

How China pulled ahead in EV technologyHeadlight tricks are easy to mock as gimmicks. They sit on top of a much bigger story, though. China spent the last decade building an end-to-end EV stack that is now delivering vehicles to market faster and cheaper than anything coming out of Detroit.For investors, the punchline is uncomfortable. The world’s biggest auto market is being won by companies American buyers cannot easily own and American workers do not build for.China’s EV dominance by the numbersChinese firms produced 62% of the world’s EVs and 77% of EV batteries as of 2022, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.Chinese EV companies bring new models to market 30% faster than legacy American, European, and Japanese carmakers, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation notes.Chinese automakers operate with a 30% cost advantage and 40-50% less development investment per vehicle than peers, according to AlixPartners.Canada signed a deal in January 2026 to slash its tariff on Chinese-made EVs from 100% to 6.1%, according to Electrek, opening another market where U.S. brands now compete head-on with cars they would never face in their home dealerships.Ford CEO Jim Farley has been the loudest voice in Detroit warning about all of this. “Manufacturing is the heart and soul of our country,” Farley said on Fox & Friends. He has repeatedly described the matchup as a fight Americans cannot win on a level playing field.Farley has even imported a Xiaomi SU7 from Shanghai for personal evaluation, calling its makers a juggernaut and acknowledging on “CBS News Sunday Morning” that Chinese rivals already offer better in-car technology than do U.S. brands.What the headlight tech gap means for U.S. drivers and investorsFor an American shopper, none of this turns into a showroom decision tomorrow. Tariffs of more than 100% effectively keep Chinese EVs off U.S. lots, and the headlight rule that finally opened the door to adaptive beams in 2022 is still working through follow-up petitions filed by automakers and lighting suppliers. More Automotive:Hyundai admits deadly defect caused more injuries than previously knownConsumer Reports names 5 popular EVs with the best real-world rangeUber targets 50,000 robotaxis in major Rivian, Nvidia dealsThe longer the technology gap widens, though, the more it shows up in your wallet in less obvious ways. American auto stocks are competing globally against rivals with a structural cost advantage. My quick check of the latest sales figures, as reported by Bloomberg, shows BYD (BYDDY) shipped roughly 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, while Ford’s global wholesales fell to about 4.4 million. A Chinese company that cannot legally sell a passenger car in the U.S. just passed the company that invented the assembly line.For long-term investors, the question is whether tariffs are buying enough time. Ben Nelmes, executive director of UK think tank New Automotive, told CBS News that “China is miles ahead of the rest of the world” on EV innovation, warning that protectionism could leave Western automakers further behind once the wall comes down.For the next-car shopper, the math is simpler. A future Ford F-150 Lightning will not project a movie on your garage door any time soon. It will, eventually, get adaptive beams that drivers in Germany and China have had for years. Until U.S. automakers close the broader feature gap, the question for anyone shopping or saving toward an EV is whether to wait, buy what is available, or rethink the brand entirely.Either way, the cost of the wait is real. Every year the gap widens, U.S. brands have to either lift R&D spending, which dents the margins shareholders care about, or eat market-share losses overseas, which dents the long-term earnings story those same shareholders pay for in their 401(k)s and index funds.The headlight news is not really about headlights. It is about who writes the next decade of automotive innovation. Right now, Beijing has the better script.Related: Chinese EV giant sends a bold message straight to the US

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts surges to No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart — behind Noah Kahan’s Stick Season — as “Drop Dead” launches on several rankings.

In the race for AI supremacy, the copper in the ground matters as much as the silicon in the chip.

Many retirees don’t want to say goodbye to working forever. Seasonal gigs can offer a balance between a full-time job and completely leaving the workforce.
These jobs provide a healthy middle ground that lets retirees earn money, make friends and feel fulfilled without committing to grueling schedules.

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Why seasonal work appeals to retirees
Seasonal work often has distinct beginning and end dates with more flexibility than traditional jobs, which can make sense for people who have retired but are looking for part-time work. Roughly 38% of Americans who are 65 years or older worked part-time in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The extra income can make it easier to travel, shop for holiday gifts, keep up with inflation and more. It can also help retirees preserve their nest eggs while offering social interaction and light activity.

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5 seasonal gigs retirees love
Each person has different interests and skillsets, but this list of seasonal gigs can offer a good starting point for retirees who are looking for part-time opportunities:

Tax season assistant or tax preparer: Retirees who have finance, bookkeeping and administrative skills can take on this job from January to April — ahead of Tax Day — while having much less work for the rest of the year. Advanced credentials are not required for this role, and some firms provide training for beginners.
Tour or museum guide: If you like history and enjoy learning new things, you may benefit from becoming a tour guide or getting a job in a museum. Seasonal tourism means you may have a busier schedule during the peak season and a more laid back schedule when the busy season dies down.
Garden center or farmers market worker: You can work at your local farmers market or garden center in the spring and summer. This job lets you spend time outdoors.
Pet sitter or dog walker during travel-heavy seasons: Summer vacations and holidays can give you the opportunity to pet sit in your neighborhood. It’s optimal for animal lovers, and you can also walk dogs on the side when pet sitting isn’t as busy. These occupations give you the option to dictate your hours, with various apps connecting you with potential customers.
Holiday retail, gift wrapping or seasonal customer service: Retailers need additional workers during the holiday season and often feature seasonal gigs. These jobs can offer stable income for a few months, but not everyone likes the idea of standing, crowds and weekend shifts.

What retirees should check before saying yes
Seasonal gig work can provide purpose and extra income on a flexible schedule, but some jobs are better than others. You should ask about the following details before committing to a gig:

Expected hours
Physical requirements
Weekend shifts
If training is paid

You can still receive Social Security if you work a part-time job, but a portion of your benefits may be withheld if you are below the full retirement age. The amount withheld depends on how much you earn.
Self-employment gigs like pet sitting can be lucrative, but you must track your own income and expenses. You also have to be proactive with getting customers, but various apps such as Rover and Wag can make it easier to form those types of relationships.
You can earn a solid income with part-time, seasonal jobs, but make sure they are legitimate. Scammers operate in every industry, and if a seasonal job requires upfront payments, lists vague duties or offers unusually high pay for little work, it may be a scam. Start with comparing a seasonal gig with similar postings to assess if it is legitimate.

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