The bottom line

■ Five of the biggest stocks in the S&P 500—Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, and Tesla—account for more than half the benchmark’s gain since April, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

The Wall Street Journal

■ Sotheby’s recorded $7.3 billion in sales this year—a 46 percent jump from 2020 and the highest sales figure ever in its 277-year history. The auction house said 44 percent of its bidders were first-timers.

Fortune.com

■ A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that just 10,000 Bitcoin accounts (out of an estimated 114 million accounts that hold Bitcoin worldwide) own 5 million out of the 19 million coins in circulation, or the equivalent of about $232 billion. Fortune.com

■ Twenty-one out of 33 special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) tied to famous public figures have posted negative returns for 2021. While a SPAC tied to former President Donald Trump gained more than 400 percent, the rest of the group averaged an 11 percent drop through Dec. 13, with rapper Jay-Z’s 84 percent plunge the worst of the bunch.

Bloomberg.com

■ Homes jointly purchased by people with different last names rose nearly 772 percent over the past 11 years, according to Attom Data Solutions, a real estate analytics firm. An increasingly unaffordable housing market has convinced younger would-be homeowners to co-buy with friends or roommates. NBCNews.com

■ The price of natural gas has fallen by nearly half since its peak in October. U.S. crude oil prices this week were also 19 percent down from November.

Axios.com