🛩️ Air Force One Percent

These days, Corporate America’s top executives aren’t trying to get their carry-ons gate checked. And as far as perks go, they expect a bit more than free coffee and granola bars.

Hence the steady rise of spending on private and chartered flights by the US’s 500 largest companies. 

• Companies’ median spending on private flights for execs jumped 19% from 2021 to 2024, according to data provided to Sherwood News by executive intelligence firm Equilar.

• It’s everywhere you look. Meta reported that last year it spent $1.5 million chartering business travel flights for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and $2.6 million on private jets for his personal use.

• Tyson Foods paid $2.98 million last year for the use of corporate jets for Chairman John H. Tyson’s personal travel.

• Even Tootsie Roll doled out about $1.8 million for CEO Ellen Gordon to fly on its company aircraft for both business and personal uses.

If you factor in the change from 2020, when travel was depressed because of the pandemic, the jump is 66%.

The Takeaway

These aren’t the only execs kicking back in PJs on company dime. Per Equilar, the median private flight expense has increased in nearly all industries across Corporate America. And as The Wall Street Journal reported, at the same time that execs’ private flight perks have surged, much of Corporate America has slashed costs and laid off workers.

Meanwhile, even us regulars are getting used to the finer flights in life, with Delta reporting that once its customers go Comfort+, most stick with the extra legroom for the long haul.

Read more.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, commonly known by its ticker, SPY, is undergoing the largest annual withdrawal ever for an ETF, losing even more ground to its now dominant rival, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, or VOO. Even before investors pulled out a record $32.7 billion so far this year, SPY had lost the crown it previously held for three decades. Now the gap has widened, with VOO counting $770 billion in assets under management, while SPY drags behind with $702 billion in AUM. 

It’s not a mystery why:

• At the heart of VOO’s rise is its cost advantage, charging just 0.03% in annual fees, a third of SPY’s 0.09%. It may not seem like a huge difference, but it adds up.

• Cost-conscious, buy-and-hold-forever retail investors are now powering the ETF market once driven by institutions and traders chasing SPY’s liquidity.

Meanwhile, there’s an upstart in the ETF ecosystem causing waves: BlackRock’s IBIT, which is making VOO’s early growth look glacial. By the time you’re reading this, in fact, the bitcoin ETF will likely have passed the $100 billion in AUM mark, a feat it accomplished in well under two years. 

The Takeaway

Retail investors today account for three-quarters of US ETF assets overall, and the ETF market itself has exploded: there are now more ETFs than individual equities listed, which sounds wild when you first hear it but makes some sense, the way you can make 100 different pizzas with just a few ingredients. And if you can get basically the exact same pizza for even a few pennies cheaper, why wouldn’t you? 

See it all charted.

Ferrari’s electric car push loses power

In an event at its northern Italy HQ yesterday, Ferrari lifted the hood on its first electric car, the production-ready “Elettrica” model, and the market hated it. It also announced it’s scaling back its electrification plans until 2030 to focus on its internal combustion and hybrid lineup. Even that balance seems to be shifting, as good old gas-powered cars have overtaken sales of its EVs lately.

 📈 ICE vs. hybrids, charted

• Serve Robotics spiked after announcing a multiyear partnership with DoorDash for deliveries

• Nvidia rose after reportedly receiving US government approval to ship some AI chips to the UAE

• Delta climbed after its third-quarter earnings beat on both sales and profit and it forecast a strong final quarter of 2025

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