The bottom line

The top five tech companies— Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft— account for 12 percent of the pretax profits of nonfinancial firms in America, up from 4 percent in 2010. They’re also responsible for a full 30 percent of the S&P 500’s spending on research and development.

The Economist

Newt Gingrich, a former Air Force lieutenant general, and the ex-publicist for Michael Jackson are proposing a contest that would pay up to $2 billion to build the first lunar base. That’s far less than NASA’s estimation of the cost of permanent housing on the moon: $50 billion.

Politico.com

Shipments of recreational vehicles to dealers have dropped about 20 percent this year, following a 4.1 percent drop last year. Multiyear drops in RV shipments have preceded the last three recessions.

The Wall Street Journal

China’s retaliatory taxes on American imports have created a 93 percent surcharge on every U.S. bottle of wine. China was the fifth-largest destination for U.S. wine; exports there are down 33 percent compared with 2017.

Los Angeles Times

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has bought up shares in banks and other financial companies, recently spurned by many investors. They make up $96.5 billion of the firm’s $200 billion stock portfolio, a four-fold increase since 2010. At $26 billion, Bank of America is Buffett’s biggest bank investment.

The Wall Street Journal

A California man who purchased a vanity plate with only the word NULL was hit with $12,049 in mistaken traffic fines. When traffic cops forgot to enter a license plate number on a citation, it was recorded as “Null.”

Wired.com