The criminal conviction of short seller Andrew Left, who used to lead Citron Research for a “long-running market manipulation theme,” has thrown cold water on short selling. I was certainly no fan of Citron Research, which attacked Super Micro Computer (SMCI) and Sezzle (SEZL) before the short seller shut down.The primary reason that I rode through the gyrations that Citron Research caused for SMCI and SEZL was that the analyst community never cut their earnings estimates for these stocks and the fundamental attacks were bogus. Citron Research tied to prick bubbles in stocks that were going parabolic with bogus innuendos and alleged insider information. Since Citron Research predominantly used social media to spread its lies, this is a landmark case that will likely cause most short sellers to retreat, which is good news for the current bull market.Ron Baron believes in investing in Elon Musk. However, Ron Baron is largely missing out on the AI data center boom this year. The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on Rob Baron and commented that even though he is poised to benefit from his firm’s investment in SpaceX, his largest fund is actually down this year, other funds are lagging, and one is down over 10% this year. Baron invested in SpaceX in 2017 when it was valued at less than $22 billion. SpaceX accounted for almost 30% of his largest fund, while Tesla represented nearly 19%. This puts investors in a predicament, since buying a Baron fund is the easiest way for investors to invest in SpaceX pre-IPO, but clearly, performance has been lackluster this year.We are truly in the midst of a stunning earnings announcement season. My favorite economist, Ed Yardeni, reported that with 97% of the first quarter earnings being released, the S&P 500’s earnings are up a stunning 29.3% compared to a year ago. Fully 8 of the 11 S&P 500 sectors have announced double-digit earnings increases. I should add that Micron Technology (MU) still has to announce its latest quarterly results, and the analyst community is expecting 909.6% earnings growth as well as 263.7% sales growth.Expectations remain high for Friday’s payroll report in the wake of the ADP report. ADP announced that private payrolls rose by 122,000 in May, which was the largest increase in the past 16 months and significantly better than economists’ consensus estimate of 110,000. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said, “Hiring was more broad-based in May than we’ve seen in the last few years.” Richardson added that “The labor market continues to show sustained momentum going into the summer hiring season.”