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Keep our investigators on the job uncovering the truth:
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TOGETHER WITH
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Good morning. The
chili is already in the slow cooker ahead of Monday’s antitrust hearing
featuring the CEOs of the biggest tech names in the land: Amazon,
Facebook, Apple, and Google.
We
want you to be prepared for the business event of the season, so each
day we’ll be publishing “explainers” explaining why these companies were
summoned to the principal’s office in the first place.
We’re kicking the series off with the kahuna among kahunas: Amazon. You can catch the piece after the news.
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NASDAQ
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10,680.36
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- 0.81%
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S&P
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3,257.31
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+ 0.17%
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DJIA
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26,840.68
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+ 0.60%
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GOLD
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1,841.90
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+ 1.35%
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10-YR
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0.606%
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- 0.90 bps
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OIL
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41.76
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+ 2.33%
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*As of market close
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Energy: Oil prices hit a four-month high, pulling energy stocks up with them. Higher energy prices indicate investors think demand for fuel is on the comeback trail.
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COVID-19 update: At the White House, President Trump said the pandemic will "get worse before it gets better" and encouraged Americans to wear masks.
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee approved President Trump nominee Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
- Shelton got the
greenlight by the skin of her teeth—i.e. a party-line 13–12 vote. All 12
of the committee’s Democrats signed a letter to committee chairman Sen.
Mike Crapo requesting another hearing.
- Three of the committee’s Republicans had previously expressed doubts about Shelton.
FYI: The
Board of Governors is a seven-member body that oversees the Federal
Reserve system, including emergency lending activities and orchestrating
monetary policy.
Christopher Waller also got the nod to the board, but he’s much less controversial than Shelton. We’ll explain.
Shelton has held some...unorthodox positions
For a while,
she advocated for a return to the gold standard, though more recently
she’s backed off that highly unconventional idea. Her views on the Fed’s
independence are now causing more sleep loss for legal and economic
experts.
- The White House and the
Fed are traditionally held as far apart as the parking lot and the
concert venue. The distance is meant to enable the Fed to make decisions
based on long-term economic trends, not short-term political
interests.
- But Shelton has
questioned that separation. And she was an informal adviser to
President Trump’s 2016 campaign, leading some experts to worry
she’d serve his goals. Trump also has been aggressively pressuring
current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which adds to their nightmares of a
politicized Fed.
Shelton may rise even higher than the Board. Some think that, if he’s reelected, Trump will nominate Shelton for Powell’s spot.
Zoom out: The Fed and the central bankers who comprise it are more crucial than ever as lawmakers and economists search for a way out of the current economic crisis.
Looking ahead...Shelton
and Waller’s next (and final) stop on the nomination circuit is the
full Senate, where President Trump’s Republican Party has a majority.
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Francis Scialabba
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Snap kicked
off Q2 earnings for social media companies yesterday, and like receiving
a Snapchat from your college ex, it was a mixed bag of emotions.
Revenue increased 17% annually to $454 million, beating
estimates but giving away slowing growth. Snap said advertisers have
upped spending in recent weeks, particularly in gaming and e-commerce.
Daily active
users were also up 17% to 238 million, right in line with expectations.
The company can at least high-five itself for creating a habit: It said
the average user opened Snapchat 30x a day in Q2. Speaking of, please
close Snapchat and continue reading this email.
The fun stuff
Last month, Snap announced
the “Minis” developer platform, which allows third parties to run
applications in Snap’s app. On Monday, the first Mini with meditation
app Headspace launched with six guided meditation exercises.
Three others
drop this week, including study aid Flashcards, clairvoyance game
Prediction Master, and Let’s Do It, which helps your friends make
decisions.
Zoom out: Against
the backdrop of a Facebook boycott and last week’s Twitter hack, Snap’s
holding steady. Its stock is up almost 200% since March and nearing
2017 highs.
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FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Swap the
mimosas for straight OJ, and you just might have a productive morning.
On Monday, EU leaders reached an agreement on a momentous $857 billion coronavirus recovery package.
EU members will sell bonds to raise the funds, which includes ~$450 billion in grants for countries hardest hit by COVID-19.
They’ll remember this summit for years
But not
because of the chess, wine, movies, and hallway naps. It took four days
of tense, draining negotiations for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
French President Emmanuel Macron to get “the frugals”—the Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Austria—on board.
- The wealthy northern
European countries were reluctant to send money to their southern
neighbors and wanted strict spending oversight and labor market and
pension reforms.
- Italy’s prime minister accused the holdups of “blackmailing” Europe and risking the bloc’s future.
Talks almost
disintegrated as sleep-deprived leaders entered day 3. On day 4, aides
“combed Brussels for extra underwear and fresh face masks,” Bloomberg reports.
But in a
testament to the power of the German-French alliance (and a midnight
bowl of cherries), a consensus was hammered out on Monday.
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SPONSORED BY POLICYGENIUS
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In recent
months, we’ve discovered there’s a lot of things we can live
without—pants, gym memberships, being three baskets of wings deep at a
bar...did we mention pants?
However, life insurance is not one of those things we are willing to go without. Which is why we trust the insurance wizards at Policygenius to compare quotes from the top life insurance companies.
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So while you
relax and try to remember what it feels like to wear jeans,
Policygenius will find the life insurance policy that best fits your
life.
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NWSL
Yesterday, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced a new team will come to Los Angeles in 2022. The name? Angel City...for now.
The backstory: A high-powered group of investors and celebs have been pushing for a Los Angeles women’s soccer team for several years. And if you want to start something in LA, you do it through hard work and name dropping.
- Oscar winner Natalie
Portman and Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman started the group with
entertainment biz veteran Julie Uhrman, who serves as its president.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams, actors such as Uzo Aduba and Eva
Longoria, and former USWNT legends such as Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy are
also involved.
- Williams’s husband, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, led the investment into Angel City.
+ The team doesn't have a permanent name, probably
because Brew readers haven’t offered suggestions yet. The Los Angeles
Açaà Bowls? The Los Angeles Aggressive Drivers? Think about it and get
back to us.
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Francis Scialabba
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This week, the Brew is previewing next Monday's antitrust hearing by profiling each Big Tech company.
Company name: Amazon
Volunteered as tribute: CEO Jeff Bezos
The charges: Amazon
is being investigated for allegedly using the data it’s collected on
third-party sellers to help it make competing products. It may also be
questioned about Amazon Web Services, the immensely profitable cloud
unit it uses to subsidize its e-commerce operations.
The rebuttal: Bezos
will likely point to a few key stats, including that third-party
sellers now outsell Amazon products on Amazon’s own platform, as
evidence of Amazon's fair and equitable treatment of those third-party
sellers.
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Tapestry’s
CEO Jide Zeitlin is stepping down less than a year into the job. The
WSJ reports Zeitlin’s personal behavior was being investigated by the
board.
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United Airlines lost $1.6 billion in Q2.
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Coca-Cola reported a 28% decline in sales last quarter but thinks the worst is over.
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Robinhood is putting its UK expansion plans on hold.
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The New York tristate area increased the list of states on its self-quarantine list to 31.
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Bam. Boo’s. Back. Alright. CARIUMA’s IBI sneakers are back in stock, baby.
Made from bamboo, sugarcane, and cork, these carbon neutral, vegan foot
puppies help you stay comfortable—and Planet Earth stay cool. On top of
that, CARIUMA plants two trees for every pair purchased. Take 15% before they’re out of stock again.
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Throwback: Pepsi’s
2009 logo redesign came from a wild pitch that analyzed the new
symbol's potential magnetic and gravitational pull, among other
qualities. Here’s the original PDF and a TikTok overview.
Throw even further back: According to this 1913 Webster’s Dictionary, “humor” is a noun that means “to be moist” and “dilly” is “a kind of stagecoach”—not a Bud Light slogan  .
Smart money:
What are investors doing with their money during the pandemic?
Investopedia surveyed over 1,000 readers to find out. See which stocks
millennials are putting their money behind and which sectors most
readers think will lead the recovery right here.
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Happy National Hot Dog Day. Here’s a trivia question about hot dogs:
There is only one MLB stadium in which sausages typically outsell hot dogs. What’s the city?
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When you share the Brew with your network, you earn free swag like our classic Morning Brew t-shirt.
Whether
you’re rocking it as a weekday undershirt, a weekend statement piece,
or you’re just looking to cause a stir at Aunt Margaret’s black tie
wedding, our comfy tees will get the job done.
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SCORCHING CANINE TRIVIA ANSWER
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Where else could it be? The Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Park.
Mail-In
Ballot Fraud in New Jersey Points To National Trouble
Judicial Watch
In a
well-documented case of ballot fraud, the state attorney general charged
four men with casting fraudulent mail-in votes, tampering with public
records, and falsifying documents. It’s a template for crooked
electioneering and perhaps a sign of things to come.
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Judicial
Watch Asks the Court to Halt Newsom ‘Vote-by-Mail’ Mandate
Judicial Watch
California
will flood the state with ballots mailed to countless voters at locations
they no longer reside, including some that moved almost twenty years ago.
Just the damage this will do to the confidence in California’s elections
is significant and irreparable.
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Queens,
N.Y., Primary Gives Us a Preview of the Mayhem Mail-in Voting Could Create
in November
PJ Media
Widespread
mail-in voting could destroy confidence in fair and free elections at a
time when this institution could not be more critical. It is not clear that
Democrats have any problem with challenging our 240-year history of
peaceful transfers of power. They tried in 2016 and appear to be more
determined in 2020 if they fail to gain power.
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July 22
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| FEATURED BIOGRAPHY
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| Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
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| FEATURED EVENT
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| 1977
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| Deng Xiaoping reinstated
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