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TOGETHER WITH
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Good Friday morning. Huge
news out of college admissions yesterday: The University of California
system will phase out ACT and SAT requirements by 2025. So
perfidious...yet in many ways querulous. We impute it to be null.
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NASDAQ
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9,284.88
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- 0.97%
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S&P
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2,948.51
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- 0.78%
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DJIA
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24,474.12
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- 0.41%
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GOLD
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1,726.70
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- 1.45%
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10-YR
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0.673%
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- 1.00 bps
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OIL
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34.01
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+ 1.55%
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*As of market close
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Employment: Another 2.4 million people filed jobless claims last week, bringing the total during the pandemic to 38.6 million.
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Economy quotes for the history books: “The
coronavirus pandemic poses the most serious threat to maximum
employment and potentially to price stability that the United States has
faced in our lifetimes,” said vice-chair of the Fed Richard Clarida.
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Stocks:
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Francis Scialabba
One day, you
might compare working in an office to remembering someone's phone
number—something you don't have to do anymore. Yesterday, several large
tech companies joined Twitter in making their pandemic-imposed remote
work arrangements more permanent.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in his weekly livestream
with employees that the company’s 45,000+ person workforce will move
toward a more remote system. Zuckerberg estimated Facebook will be up to
half remote within the next 10 years.
The details: In
the near term, Facebook will dial up remote recruiting and hiring; new
recruits to U.S. roles will be given the option to work remotely.
Eventually, existing employees will be able to request a permanent WFH
setup (we recommend a vertical mouse).
- 95% of Facebook
employees are working remotely right now, and Zuckerberg only expects
about 25% to be back in the office by the end of the year.
- If you’re still in your
sorority’s group chat, Facebook wants you in the office. Recent college
grads will have to clock in while they're getting started.
The reasoning: Zuck told The Verge’s Casey Newton that work on “remote presence”
products like Portal and Facebook Workplace gave execs a growing sense
that distributed working was doable. And then COVID-19 made distributed
working necessary.
- ...and this may allow
Facebook to scale back pay. If employees leave the Bay Area and relocate
to virtually anywhere but Tribeca or Monaco, their cost of living will
drop. And Zuckerberg will adjust compensation accordingly.
There’s something in the air
Spotify and
Shopify made their own “we’re going flexible” statements yesterday, too.
Spotify’s global workforce can WFH until next year, and Shopify’s will
be allowed to do so as long as they please—a “forever” policy à la
Twitter.
Bottom line: The biz world has set sail toward Remote Work Isle, but it’s a much easier journey for high-income, plugged-in tech workers. 67% of respondents to our unofficial Twitter poll said they expect to be back in the office by the end of the year.
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WarnerMedia
Streaming service HBO Max will be the crown jewel of AT&T’s entertainment empire when it launches Wednesday. But don’t confuse it with…
- HBO, the channel
- HBO Go, the streaming service offered through cable/TV providers
- HBO Now, the standalone streaming service (most Now subscribers can convert to Max for free)
That’s more confusing than Spotify/Shopify, which means AT&T’s WarnerMedia has an uphill battle proving HBO Max is worth $15/month.
What it’s got
Signature HBO programming, new originals, the Warner Bros. library, a Friends reunion, and...
The exclusive release of director Zach Snyder’s never-seen cut of Justice League.
Never seen because...never made. Warner Bros. will drop up to $30
million finishing his original vision, which will be released next
year.
- The “Snyder Cut”
demonstrates the value of IP for entertainment brands. Even if it’s
worse than the original, it might not matter because DC comic fans will
come, per NBC’s Dylan Byers.
While HBO's throwing money around, how about a new final season of GOT?
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Francis Scialabba
The Atlantic has been widely praised for breakthrough COVID-19 coverage. But yesterday, the magazine announced it was laying off 17% of staff following cuts at other digital media companies like BuzzFeed, Vice, and Quartz.
The pandemic has created a textbook case of situational irony. Many media companies are experiencing huge bumps
in subscriptions and visitors; The Atlantic has signed up 90,000 paying
subscribers since March. Yet a collapse in ad revenue crashed the party
before the pregame could start.
Few have been spared
Layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts have made their way across newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and digital media.
Yes, many in digital media were hurting before the pandemic due to an overreliance
on venture capital and advertising competition from Facebook and
Google. But the pandemic shocked not only their core revenue stream
(advertising), but also events and B2B offerings.
+ While we’re here: Staffers at The LA Times created a “work share”
program, where employees reduce hours and collect partial unemployment.
Some experts think such arrangements could present a more
cost-effective alternative to layoffs.
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We’re about to tell you something that seems unbelievable. Borderline impossible.
Then
we’re going to immediately convince you that not only is it true, but
that over 21,000 people insist on exactly what we’re saying.
Ready for it?
Vincero handcrafts the highest-quality, most stylish watches we’ve ever seen—for under $200.
What do we
mean by “highest quality?” Italian leather and imported marble
construction—each one personally hand-checked by an expert. For less than $200.
We know—we told you it’s unbelievable. We were skeptical ourselves…until we read 21,000 5-star reviews all about Vincero’s awesomeness. Then we finally got one of our own…and time stopped altogether.
So now that Father’s Day is coming up, we figured it’s high time to get our favorite dads, grandpas, bros, and uncles in on Vincero. After all, what’s a better gift than something that will stand the test of time?
Right now you can get up to 20% off your order during their site-wide sale—the code will be automatically applied at checkout.
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Francis Scialabba
Recently,
Gap Inc.’s SVP of global logistics fulfillment called robotics firm
Kindred AI with an unusual request. We don’t have the transcript, but Reuters reports
he asked something to the effect of, “I know you planned to deliver
those robots in a few months, but could you do it...nowish?”
The backstory: With
the pandemic bearing down, Gap warehouses were forced to do more with
less. It wasn’t safe to operate distribution centers with a full staff,
and the company had to process a surge in online orders.
Zoom out: The
pandemic is giving retailers a new reason to employ robotics tech that
has graduated from moving items across floors to more sophisticated
tasks, like box packing and cashier functions. Walmart, Amazon, and many
grocery chains have ramped up their automated operations in recent
months to keep up with demand. As Retail Brew Writer Halie LeSavage puts it, robots don’t cough.
Happy ending: Kindred got 10 machines to a Gap warehouse in Tennessee and 20 to one in Ohio.
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BIG developments in the world of weekly news quizzes. To
make the quiz a better experience for you, we've moved it to a fully
online, interactive format. That way, you can click on answers and get
nearly instant gratification—instead of squinting and scrolling for the
answers in the newsletter.
So try it out. See how closely you read the Brew this week and take the quiz.
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China's
parliament will discuss implementing new security measures for Hong
Kong following major protests in 2019. The U.S. came back with sharp
opposition to the proposed law.
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Starbucks
said reopening plans were going better than expected, with comparable
U.S. sales at nearly two-thirds their level from last year.
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President Trump visited a Ford plant in Michigan that had shifted to making ventilators for COVID-19 patients.
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Amazon is pushing Prime Day from July to the fall, the WSJ reports.
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John Krasinski’s tear-jerker of a YouTube series, Some Good News, has been licensed to ViacomCBS following a bidding war, per The Hollywood Reporter.
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These guys take the edge off investing. The market analysts at The Motley Fool have come up with five stocks they think are perfectly positioned in this down market. Learn about their picks here.*
It only takes three weeks to start getting conversational in a new language and a measly three minutes to sign up for Babbel.
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New sports doc: A few weeks ago, we asked readers to name their preferred topic for ESPN's next big sports doc after The Last Dance. Well...the answer is out: Tom Brady. You'll get the next one, BYU Women's Rugby.
Morning Brew is hiring! We’re currently accepting applications for...
- Interns to work on the podcast, newsletters, and operations
- Writers for our industry verticals, Retail Brew and Emerging Tech Brew
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You can learn more about these roles and others at Morning Brew right here.
*This is sponsored advertising content
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On our podcast, Business Casual,
host Kinsey Grant asks the biggest names in business to answer the
biggest questions in business. We know that’s a...big ask, but Business Casual guests deliver. Here are some recent episodes worth checking out:
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Shark Tank legend Barbara Corcoran breaks down everything you’ve ever wanted to know about residential and commercial real estate.
- Can capitalism survive—and better yet, should it? VC Chamath Palihapitiya shares his controversial response.
- Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio explains why studying business = studying history.
- And a classic from the pre-COVID archives: Gary Vaynerchuk on hard work, success, and selling baseball cards.
Got an idea for a future episode? Want to hear what Mark Cuban is like off the record? Take it up with Kinsey on Twitter.
+ Bonus: Because today is National Solitaire Day, our friends at Solitaired created this Business Casual-inspired solitaire game. Real winners can listen to podcasts and play cards at the same time.
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Here’s a fun game for people who like words: We’ll
give you three letters, and you have to find an English word that
contains them in that order, with no other letters or spaces in between.
Ex: BVI = Obvious
WKW, UMF, PTC, GGP, AUE
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got something for everyone in our premier rewards program.
Hit the button below to start sharing the Brew.
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Btw, there's more than one answer to these.
1. WKW = Awkward 2. UMF = Circumference 3. PTC = Bankruptcy 4. GGP = Eggplant 5. AUE = Sauerkraut | |
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