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Good morning. As the official arbiters of everything coffee-related, we at Morning Brew hereby proclaim:
Iced coffee season has begun. (For the brave, it never ended.)
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Nasdaq
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13,299.74
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S&P
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4,115.68
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Dow
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33,896.04
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Bitcoin
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$38,799.31
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10-Year
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1.675%
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Ethereum
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$2,576.72
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*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET.
Here's what these numbers mean.
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Markets: Initially down big, stocks mounted a comeback
over the course of the afternoon to close only slightly lower. But the
real action of the day was in crypto, which we’ll get to in just a sec.
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Economy: Minutes from the Fed’s meeting in April show that a “number”
of officials seemed ready to roll back some of the central bank’s
pandemic-era stimulus measures. But that was before the big jobs report
miss, which may have changed calculations.
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Francis Scialabba
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It’s
possible we upset the cryptocurrency gods when we bragged about only
mentioning “crypto” once in yesterday’s newsletter. As the Brew entered
your inbox early yesterday morning, many cryptocurrencies crashed,
including the big two:
- Bitcoin’s value fell to nearly $30,000 per coin, down from over $50,000 a week ago, before bouncing back to about $38,000.
- Ether, the second-largest crypto, slid from over $3,350 to about $1,900 before also ticking back up.
During the plunge, both cryptos hit their lowest levels
since January, and experienced one-day drops not seen since March of
last year—you know, when we thought drinking “quarantinis” was cute and
shiba inu owners weren’t stopped on the street because “lol dogecoin.”
Any reason why?
On Tuesday,
the People’s Bank of China reminded financial institutions that they
cannot conduct business with cryptocurrencies following China’s 2017 ban
of bitcoin exchanges. It added that virtual currency is “not a real
currency” and called recent surges in the space “speculation.”
Investors interpreted it as an omen of future government regulation on crypto—and not just in China.
Some other reasons investors could be hopping off the crypto coaster:
- New crypto investors may have learned Monday that the IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, not currency, and taxes it as such.
- Elon Musk, who can send crypto prices soaring or dipping
with the stroke of a key, made bitcoin boosters nervous when he said
last week that Tesla would no longer take bitcoin as payment due to
environmental concerns. But yesterday, amid the market chaos, Musk
confirmed his support for bitcoin with a tweet: “Tesla has
  ”
On a crazy day for crypto, everyone had something to say
Let’s pass the mic...
PwC’s global
head of crypto Henri Arslanian: “I would not be surprised to see other
regulators and policymakers do the same [as the Chinese rules] over the
coming weeks as they warn investors over the risks of speculative
trading or crypto market volatility.”
Major crypto investor Mike Novogratz:
“Now we’ve got a liquidation event...Humpty Dumpty never gets put back
together in two days...when he cracks. It’s going to take a while. The
market will consolidate. It will find a bottom somewhere.”
Tom Brady tweeted, “Over here we just buy the dip!”
And that's
pretty much crypto investing in a nutshell. Some are concerned retail
traders will get hurt, some are extremely bullish, and others are
treating it like a game.
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Ford
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In an extravagant event last night, Ford unveiled
its all-electric F-150 Lightning. The F-150 has been America’s
top-selling vehicle for decades, and there’s a lot more riding on it
than a bunch of teens coming in from a long day of loading hay bales.
Speaking on
Tuesday at a Ford plant in Michigan, President Biden used the release of
the new F-150 to drum up support for his proposed $2.3 trillion
infrastructure plan, specifically the part that allocates $100+ billion
to EV manufacturing and battery development.
Big picture:
The reveal of the F-150 Lightning, whose base model starts near
$40,000, is a watershed moment in the auto industry's dramatic pivot to
electric. Since EVs are sometimes considered the domain of the Berkeley
crowd, Ford hopes that an electric version of the ubiquitous F-150 could
change perceptions.
Looking ahead...transportation
contributes 29% to the US’ total emissions, per the EPA, but an
electric truck won’t lower that number if no one wants to drive it. A
crucial test for Ford awaits.
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If you’ve been craving a currywurst, you’re in luck because the European Union just agreed
to let fully vaccinated non-EU travelers head on over. The decision
yesterday streamlines the hodgepodge of travel restrictions across
different countries in Europe.
Back stateside: While
some American travelers are waiting for the final EU approval that will
likely come later this month or next before booking international
flights, domestic travel has already taken off. Southwest, the airline
that ensures you’ll always be in the last boarding group, noted that fares for leisure travel are almost to 2019 levels and the company expects its May capacity to be down only 18% from 2019.
Looking ahead…Dr. Anthony Fauci said
yesterday that travelers who are fully vaxxed could safely fly without a
mask, but because there’s no vaccine passport system in the US, it’s a
“complicated issue.” So until a better solution arrives, we’ll have to
find more creative ways to shovel Biscoffs into our mouths.
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O’ remote employees, spread out under spacious skies, logging on across all 50 states.
Beautiful, isn’t it? But if you’re an employer, the logistics of this new American workforce can be a lot to handle—unless you use Justworks, which makes it simple to pay and manage remote employees across all 50 states.
Whether your
employees are working from purple mountains, amber waves of grain, or
fruited plains, Justworks helps you navigate employment-related
regulations and requirements.
Don’t have time to fly to Alaska to onboard Mike the freelance developer? No worries. Justworks helps you onboard new employees with ease in an intuitive online platform. They’ll also help you access national health insurance plans, so you can give your employees coverage from sea to shining sea.
For all that plus 24/7 expert support from real people, get started with Justworks today.
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Blue Origin
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Stat: The highest bid for a seat on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft was $2.8 million, as of last night. It’s received more than 5,200 bids
from 136 countries in the first round of the auction. The mission,
which will send six passengers into suborbital space, is set to launch
July 20.
Quote: “I
know that’s a highly controversial decision. I didn’t make it lightly. I
will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to
people like this. But it was the right thing to do for the country.”
Joseph Blount, the CEO of Colonial Pipeline, explained to the WSJ why he reluctantly paid $4.4 million
to the criminal group DarkSide, which had hacked the company’s computer
systems and caused a six-day shutdown of the largest gasoline pipeline
in the country.
Read: Hundreds of PPP loans went to fake farms in absurd places. (ProPublica)
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Microsoft
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That little “e” icon you always passed over with your mouse before clicking on another browser is being sent to the Recycle Bin of history.
Microsoft
said yesterday it is retiring its Internet Explorer desktop application
on most versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022.
The Buzz to Internet Explorer’s Woody is
Microsoft Edge, the browser Microsoft first introduced in 2015 on
Windows 10 and Xbox One. After Edge’s release, it was a matter of when,
not if, Internet Explorer would be retired.
- "Not only
is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing
experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key
concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications,”
Microsoft said in a blog post.
Zoom out: Internet Explorer has been around for more than 25 years, but it's steadily lost ground to competitors. In 2013, Google Chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the US and hasn’t looked back. According to NetMarketShare, Chrome owns 69% of the market, Edge 7.8%, Firefox 7.5%, and Internet Explorer 5.2%.
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The CEO of TikTok owner ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, is stepping down and moving to a new role.
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Target picked up what other retailers were putting down, growing sales overall 23% and apparel sales more than 60%.
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The New York tristate area ended most Covid-19 restrictions yesterday; businesses can once again operate at full capacity.
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New chicken sandwich alert: Burger King is rolling out its new “Ch’King” sandwich on June 3.
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Smell that? Here’s a list of 52 fragrances and how to think about them.
*This is sponsored advertising content
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Greenwood
Financial’s digital banking platform plans to offer everything you’d
expect from a bank: spending and savings accounts, a mobile app, a sleek
card that’s heavy enough to make a good thwap sound on a table after a
fancy meal with your parents while you say, “I got this.”
But there’s one notable difference: Greenwood’s mission is “modern banking for the Culture.”
In today's installment of our series Black Wall Street, 100 Years Later,
we profiled Greenwood and explored the challenges and opportunities for
digital platforms to give more access to the unbanked. Give it a read here.
+ For more context on the event we're commemorating this week, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, check out Part 4 of our TikTok series.
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If you thought the Dear Evan Hansen
movie photos were outrageous, just wait until you read the headlines we
found for today’s game. Here are four news stories, but one of them is a
lie, a faker, a bigger scam than Ben Platt playing a 17-year-old. See
if you can figure out which one isn’t real:
- “Philadelphia lost race for Amazon HQ2 because new CEO is a Giants fan: report”
- “Gender reveal party with 38 exploding watermelons causes $5 million in property damage”
- “Meet the marine worm with 100 butts that can each grow eyes and a brain”
- “High traces of Viagra in Seoul's sewers, research shows”
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We made up the gender reveal one, though it is extremely plausible. | |
Sean Hannity went on Fox News and demanded one apology that left viewers stunned
Joe Biden hit Americans with this disturbing coronavirus vaccine ultimatum
[POLL] Do you APPROVE or DISAPPPROVE of LeBron James, cochise7787@gmail.com?
A Biden crony just full-on attacked a Marjorie Taylor Greene staffer for a reason you won’t believe
An Academy Award-winning actor just floated the idea of running for office in a major red state
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Would
Barack Obama be a Good Justice on the United States Supreme
Court?
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| ADVERTISEMENT |
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| ADVERTISEMENT |
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May 20th, 2021
BETRAYAL: 35 Republicans Back Pelosi’s Move on the Capitol Riot
Intel GOP: “Under Dr. Fauci” US Likely Engaged in Dangerous Research in China
Ted Nugent Goes Off on Lockdowns and Fauci: ‘Punk Boy Fauci is a Scam’ (AUDIO)
Did a House GOP Report Prove Dr. Fauci Lied to Congress?
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