GLOBE 100 | OVERVIEW

The big comeback: The Globe 100 returns to full strength

- For the first time in three years, there are 100 of the state’s top-performing public companies in our annual ranking.

(ILLUSTRATION BY MITCH BLUNT)

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Pondering an art world awash in wealth

- With unemployment still above 8 percent, the amount of money swilling around the bizarre system of exchange we call the art market is incongruous, to say the least.

(ANDREW H. WALKER/GETTY IMAGES FOR SOHO HOUSE)

Mass. pending home sales up for 12th straight month

- The number of single-family homes put under agreement in April was up 35.6 percent when compared with the same month last year.

Cartoonist Tom Toles of The Washington Post comments on the state of the US economy.

DAN WASSERMAN

Editorial cartoon: Orderly economics

Mass. jobless rate falls to 6.5 percent

- The state added 8,700 jobs in March as the unemployment rate fell to 6.5 percent, well below the national rate of 8.2 percent.

Mass. gas prices rise 2 cents

- The Massachusetts average price for gas is $3.899 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, up 2 cents from the previous week’s average, AAA Southern New England said Monday.

Mass. firms chasing China’s boom

- China’s appetite for technology, advanced industrial machinery, medical devices, and other products in which the state specializes is expected to grow.

(KEITH BEDFORD FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

Growing income gap threatens area, report says

- The disparity will continue to grow unless the region’s educational system is improved and excessive costs, especially for health care, are reined in, according to a Boston Foundation report.