Axios

Commerce is becoming embedded across social feeds, search, AI answer engines and TV screens.

Why it matters: Collapsing the funnel from purchase to discovery can give platforms a better understanding of user behavior and garner more revenue.

More U.S. home sellers are becoming what Zillow calls "accidental landlords" — 2.3% of rental listings on its platform in October were previously for sale, according to the real estate site.

Why it matters: That's the highest level since late 2022, when mortgage rates topped 7%. As buyers gain leverage and homes take longer to sell, a growing share of homeowners are renting their properties out instead.

The competitive landscape for U.S. airlines is confronting seismic turbulence as energy price spikes wreak havoc on the industry.

Why it matters: Rising fuel and labor costs are squeezing airlines — and pushing higher fares and fees onto travelers already facing economic uncertainty.

Back in the 1990s, companies could slap a ".com" on their names and watch their stocks fly — it's happening now, this time with AI and a stock with the ticker BIRD.

Why it matters: It's a sign of a frothy stock market: Small companies and investors are trying to cash in on the rise of AI and the exuberance of meme traders.

Where it stands: The stock price of the former hipster/techie sneaker company Allbirds closed at $10.91 on Thursday, up more than 300% since announcing it was getting into the AI business.

• Myseum, a self-described "privacy-first social media and technology innovator," announced Wednesday afternoon that it was changing its name to Myseum.AI — its stock, valued at just a few dollars, also got a bump.

Catch up quick: Don't worry, you can still buy those wool Allbirds sneakers that used to be a thing.

• The company, once valued at $4 billion, sold off all its assets — the sneakers, the brand name — in March for $39 million. The website is still there.

Between the lines: Typically, in that kind of situation, the remaining public company shell would delist and return whatever value was left to stockholders.

• Allbirds is trying something else.

Zoom in: Now calling itself NewBird AI, the company says it expects to receive $50 million in financing from an unnamed investor that it will use to buy GPU compute capacity — and presumably sell that to other companies.

• That is pennies in the AI infrastructure business where the barrier to entry starts in the billions of dollars. "A drop in the bucket," as William Blair analysts noted.

By the numbers: Still, investors were into it!

• On Wednesday, after the pivot news broke, retail traders bought up $5.2 million worth of Allbirds stock, according to data from Vanda.
• It's relatively a small amount, and observers note that trading is pretty thin. Still, it's the most action that stock has had since its debut, when retail bought about $5 million.
• Vanda doesn't have data on automated trading or institutional dollars, but it's likely they piled in, too.

The latest: On Thursday, retail took profit — selling $950,000.

Zoom out: The stock jumped on "some combination of a very shallow float, automated momentum and unchecked hype," per William Blair's note. The firm said it was dropping its coverage.

Flashback: Back in the late 1990s, companies tried to signal that they were totally up on this new internet thing by slapping a ".com" or an "e-" or a "net" on their name. And if you already had it in your name, all the better.

• Internet.com Corp, which went public in 1999, rode the dot-com wave and its shares surged from $14.
• One paper from 2001, titled "A Rose.com by Any Other Name," found that the name changes did drive up stock prices. At least for a time.

The big picture: Allbirds is also likely hoping to attract some of the investor money sloshing around to to fund AI infrastructure, says Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.

• He notes that there was a similar rush by companies again during the dot-com era that were seeking to build the internet pipes needed for the nascent technology.
• Some of them were existing public companies looking to pivot. These kinds of "reverse mergers," where a shell of a public company gets into a new business, "always existed on the fringe," he says.
• There have been a few in recent years that got into bitcoin and blockchain, too.

The bottom line: AI is a real technology having a surreal moment.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected by removing a reference to Mecklermedia and to reflect that Internet.com Corp. went public in 1999.

The blockage to energy supplies through the Persian Gulf appears to have ended. If it holds, it takes a massive weight off the world economy.

Why it matters: The possibility of a prolonged disruption to the supply of crude oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other commodities looks to be off the table.

Oil prices dropped over 10% Friday after President Trump and Iran's foreign minister claimed the Strait of Hormuz — the world's most critical energy shipping lane — is open for transit.

Why it matters: The steep selloff signals traders see a real sign that the unprecedented throttling of oil and petroleum product flows could significantly ease.

The S&P 500 has hit a new all-time high 204 times so far this decade, per data compiled by RBC.

The big picture: All-time highs, like the ones we hit Thursday, aren't as rare as you think.

• But they were far less common in the stagflation 1970s and the post-dot-com bubble 2000s.