The holidays belong to candy

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Nearly every holiday involves candy. Just ask the poor souls at Reese’s who have to contort peanut butter cups into a thousand festive shapes like they’re balloon animals. But not all holidays are created equal. Three of them stand out on the candy calendar: Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. (No disrespect to candy canes or gelt.) Trick Treat or Treat. If you’re celebrating Halloween, candy’s a part of the picture. Every October, Americans spend billions on the sweet stuff, and the most popular activity on the big day is handing out candy. But that’s a relatively new phenomenon. According to the Sugar Association trade group: Modern trick-or-treating didn’t really take off in the US until the late 1940s. Even then, children would frequently get things like cookies, coins, and toys. Wrapped candy became popular in subsequent decades due to (mostly unfounded) concerns about poisoning. Powered by hugs and kisses: This Valentine’s Day, 56% of US consumers were projected to buy candy, outpacing other popular gifts like greeting cards and flowers, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. There’s no question that innovation in confectionery has made the holiday what it is today: Richard Cadbury, of chocolate egg fame, popularized heart-shaped chocolate boxes in the 1860s, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Milton Hershey’s Kisses hit the market in 1907. Candy hearts that said “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me” entered the conversation in 1902, per History.com. Basket case: Candy is also the most popular Easter purchase category, with Americans spending $3.3 billion on Peeps and other themed treats, according to the NRF. There’s plenty of Easter-themed fare to choose from, like chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, and marshmallow Peeps, which, in most states, were the most beloved Easter treat last year, according to a USA Today analysis of Google search data. Just try not to eat any plastic grass this year.

The latest AI winner is glass

 And the latest AI winner is glass

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Like everyone in the elevator at the end of Willy Wonka, US-based Corning is riding glass to new heights. The 175-year-old company’s stock hit an all-time high on Friday and is up more than 130% over the past year because it’s a surprising AI winner. Window to the future: Corning has long been an innovator, producing everything from Edison’s first light bulbs to Pyrex bakeware. Then, in 1970, the company’s researchers developed fiber-optic wire. But over time, that glass fiber product started to look like it needed Windex. In 2018, Corning focused on making thinner, tougher glass cables that performed especially well in data centers. When the AI boom hit, the company was perfectly positioned to help build out the infrastructure: Late last month, Corning signed a $6 billion fiber-optic cable contract with Meta. The glassmaker expects other AI “hyperscalers” to follow suit. Glass bubble? Corning was on a similar trajectory from 1997 to 2000, but when the dot-com bubble popped, the company lost more than 90% of its value. The company says it’s more diversified now. In August, Corning signed a $2.5 billion deal to manufacture all of the cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches.

 

Candy IP that could outlast a Gobstopper

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Simple, sweet, and never leaving. These three candy-themed properties have stood the test of time and are here to stay. Candy Crush This addictive game is the newest candy-coated product on our list, but it’s a dinosaur in the staring-at-your-phone category. Swedish game developer King rolled out Candy Crush, a match-three puzzle game where players try to advance to the next level, in 2012 on Facebook and as a standalone mobile game later that same year: The game popularized the “freemium” model, in which users can play for free or make in-game purchases on things like extra moves for one of the 17,000+ (and growing) levels. It hit its peak in 2015, garnering around 327 million monthly players. In 2016, Activision Blizzard bought the company behind the game for $5.9 billion. And while those jackpot-esque pings aren’t as popular as they once were on your morning commute, roughly 180 million players were still swiping in 2024, with many fans clocking in every single day, according to the company. (A spokesperson for King declined to provide Morning Brew with 2025 user figures.) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Despite it being a cult classic, the first cinematic adaptation of Dahl’s novel—which was renamed for the eponymous candymaker and released in 1971 starring Gene Wilder—was a box-office flop, earning a little over $4 million on a $2.9 million budget: The Tim Burton-directed remake in 2005 starring Johnny Depp as the eccentric factory owner fared better, snagging $475 million on a $150 million budget. The 2023 prequel Wonka and its six original songs divided critics, with some saying Timothée Chalamet earned his place in the pantheon of Wonkas and others calling the story “hollow as a chocolate egg.” It earned $635 million with a $125 million budget. And it’s not just a hit at the movies: The story has been relentlessly spoofed by most adult cartoons, including The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, South Park, Family Guy, and, most iconically, Futurama. There have been stage adaptations, video games, and even…an infamous “experience.” Candy Land Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott invented the original game in 1948 while recovering from polio, with children being treated for the same disease in mind. Its bright colors and simple gameplay meant kids could enjoy it even with limited mobility: Toy manufacturer Milton Bradley bought the game and officially published it in 1949. The company took out references to its inspiration, like removing the leg braces from one of the characters on the original board. Hasbro acquired the toymaker in 1984 and tried to add a storyline to the game, but it didn’t really stick. Despite swapping in and out characters, the classic, luck-based game has remained one of the most popular board games, selling an average of 1 million copies a year. There were even brief (but ultimately shelved) talks about an Adam Sandler-led movie adaptation.

What does private equity own?

 

What else does private equity own?

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You might think you’re pretty good at following the money through the ruins of a Red Lobster, but PE firms have expanded their investment portfolios to include things you didn’t even know were for sale, such as vital ferry lines for the Isle of Wight and gas pump screens. Here’s what else you didn’t know private equity owned: Font libraries. In 2019, private equity firm HGGC bought Monotype—the company behind pretty much every iconic font you can think of—for $825 million. Monotype has since hoovered up other typeface companies, like its 2023 acquisition of Fontworks, which was popular among Japanese game developers. Last year, Monotype discontinued its $380 yearly licensing plan and rolled out a new one for $20,500. Your tunes. The quickest way to substantial cash for megastars is selling their music catalog. OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder sold a majority stake in his 500+ songwriting catalog to PE firm KKR for $200 million in 2021. You either die buying or live long enough to become the sale: London fund Hipgnosis, which scooped up back catalogs of artists like Blondie and Justin Bieber, was acquired by Blackstone for $1.6 billion in 2024.

 

The hottest (and coldest) US housing markets

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Just like you when you tan poolside, housing markets often take a dip after getting scorching hot. Many of the regions that enjoyed soaring demand and booming home values during the Covid-19 pandemic are now yelling “cannonball!” Regions cooling down: The Southeast and Southwest (aka the Sun Belt)—where remote workers and other Covid adapters previously flocked en masse—is now swamped. Some of those markets, especially in Texas and Florida, now have the highest rates of underwater properties, which means an owner owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth. This rate is growing overall, according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange: About 2.1% of US homeowners with a mortgage were underwater by the end of 2025, equalling 1.1 million people. That’s the largest underwater portion of borrowers since 2018, and it represents a 60% increase from the beginning of 2025. How the pendulum swings: Hot housing markets are dominated by sellers who face overwhelming demand for limited inventory, leading their properties to sell quickly and at a premium. Booming post-pandemic growth started leveling off in 2022, when sky-high inflation triggered higher interest rates (and, by extension, mortgage rates), while construction ramped up to give homebuyers more options—all of which tends to cool a hot market. Now, many people who bought their homes after 2022 are grappling with the one-two punch of high mortgage rates and falling demand for homes in their areas, potentially leading swaths of underwater sellers to wait on listing their homes rather than selling them for a loss. On the flip side, underwater mortgages are now less common on the West Coast and in the Northeast and Midwest. Demand is rising, and homes are moving quickly in the latter two areas. The two hottest housing markets in the US last month were Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Hartford, Connecticut, according to Realtor.com.

Neil Sedaka dies at 86

 

Neil Sedaka, Legendary Singer-Songwriter Behind ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,’ ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Together,’ Dies at 86

By 

Jem Aswad, Payton Turkeltaub

Neil Sedaka, legendary singer-songwriter behind hits like “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” “Bad Blood,” “Laughter in the Rain” and “Calendar Girl,” has died, a rep confirms to Variety. He was 86.

“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” a statement from the family reads. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

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A Brooklyn native and a veteran of the legendary “Brill Building” hit factory of the early ’60s, Sedaka scored three No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and nine in the Top 10, primarily during his peak years in the early 1960s and a mid-’70s comeback assisted by Elton John (who performed with him on the 1975 No. 1 “Bad Blood”).

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when he first wrote them.

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Sedaka also wrote many songs that were hits for other artists, most notably Connie Francis’ hits “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are” and, nearly 15 years later, the Captain and Tennille’s 1975 breakthrough chart-topper “Love Will Keep Us Together.” He continued to tour and record for many years after his commercial peak.

Over the course of his six-decade-plus career, Sedaka was nominated for five Grammy awards (including one at the second-ever edition of the show in 1959). In 1983, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 1978 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

“This is a gift I was born with,” Sedaka wrote on his website. “My main objective is to always top the last collection, raise the bar and reinvent Neil Sedaka.”