Oil prices hit their highest level since early June overnight, with global benchmark Brent crude briefly topping $90 a barrel before retreating again. After last week’s nervousness over Middle East fighting and a wobbly AI trade, futures suggest U.S. stocks will start the new week on a strong footing.

Earnings from Tesla, Intel, American Express, Verizon and Alphabet will give investors plenty to think about over the coming days.

Mutual‑fund managers can’t catch a break, and maybe they never will. Hedge‑fund manager David Einhorn caused a stir two years ago when he called markets “fundamentally broken.” Money regularly comes out of paychecks and pours into index funds tracking the S&P 500, buying stocks with no regard to value—only their weighting. Index funds are much cheaper than active funds so they tend to outperform most of them after expenses. But, according to Einhorn and others, people who buy them don’t realize that it’s increasingly the weight of their cash, not research by a shrinking group of people like him, behind some companies’ rich valuations. “They’re gonna assume everybody else’s done the work,” said Einhorn.

The debate over passive versus active management continues as investors weigh low costs against the need for research and oversight. Fund managers face growing scrutiny, while index investors enjoy simplicity and lower fees.