BREW WITH HEADLINES

  

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning. Anheuser-Busch said it’ll give away brews if the US hits its goal of 70% of Americans partially vaccinated by July 4. Which means if you get a Covid-19 vaccine, you could soon be eligible for, among other prizes, free flights on United Airlines, free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, a $1 million lottery prize in Ohio, $1.5 million in California, a fishing license in Maine, hunting rifles in West Virginia, a $1.4 million apartment in Hong Kong, and a live cow in Thailand.

MARKETS Nasdaq 13,756.33 +0.14% S&P 4,208.12 +0.14% Dow 34,600.38 +0.07% Bitcoin $37,452.83 +2.25% 10-Year 1.588% -2.5 bps BBBY $44.19 +62.11% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 7:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: It felt like another “everything’s made up and the points don’t matter” day on Wall Street. The major indexes ticked up slightly, but some individual stocks, such as Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), produced major fireworks. World: Opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached an agreement to create a new coalition that would unseat Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

INVESTING It’s a Meme Stock Life for Us Francis Scialabba Being a meme stock is a lot like being Spider-Man: You get bit by a strange insect, gain supernatural strength but are super awkward about it, then eventually harness your new skills to save the world.  Right now, AMC is realizing that with great power, comes great opportunity to build for the future. Yesterday, to capitalize on its extraordinary (and some say baffling) popularity among individual investors, the theater chain unveiled a program called AMC Investor Connect, which aims to create a direct line between the chain and its army of individual shareholders. Through the program, individual investors will get benefits like a free large popcorn and invitations to special screenings.  Zoom out: After gaining a stunning 96% yesterday, AMC stock has now increased nearly 3,000% in 2021, which it owes to frenzied interest from retail traders who own more than 80% of the company’s outstanding shares.   But only recently has AMC decided to take advantage. Over the weekend, it sold $230 million worth of stock to a hedge fund in order to “go on the offense again."  What it all means It’s become clear that “meme stock mania,” the phenomenon of an asset shooting up in price for no other reason than it’s trending on social media, is a feature, not a bug, of modern financial markets. We thought meme stocks peaked with the bankrupt Hertz last summer, or GameStop this winter, but just this week...  Dogecoin, the crypto based on a joke, popped more than 30% yesterday in anticipation of Coinbase allowing it to be traded on its Pro platform. With a market cap of about $54 billion, it’s now the sixth-most valuable crypto. An Elon Musk tweet about the viral song “Baby Shark” sent shares of Samsung Publishing, a company that owns a big stake in the song’s producer, up more than 10%.  Looking ahead...given AMC’s success in leveraging its internet fame for tangible business improvements, other meme stocks might follow its lead.

RETAIL Etsy Finds the Sheesh to Its Cheugy Etsy is expanding beyond handmade “Live Laugh Love” bathroom signs with its acquisition of thrifting app Depop for $1.6 billion.  For Etsy, whose median seller is about 39, it’s a strategic move meant to court Depop’s overwhelmingly Gen Z user base: More than 90% of its users are under 26. For those of us past our quarter-life crises, here’s the need-to-know on the secondhand shopping platform:  More than 26 million users across 147+ countries buy and sell apparel and accessories. Revenue, which mostly comes from the commission Depop charges per sale, doubled last year to $70 million. Depop’s sales grew faster last year than its fashion resale rivals, Poshmark and ThredUp. More than $650 million worth of goods traded hands on Depop in 2020. Looking ahead...thrifting is expected to get more popular as Gen Z ages into greater spending power and more shoppers favor sustainable products over fast-fashion. But if that’s the glass-half-full take, here’s the OJ-and-I-just-brushed-my-teeth one: Etsy has warned shareholders of impending “possible deceleration” caused by “reopening headwinds.”

E-COMMERCE Amazon’s New Indica Approach Matty Merritt In an attempt to overthrow the DQ that doesn’t limit how many brownie blizzards you can eat as your town’s best employer, Amazon announced it would no longer include marijuana in its drug screenings for some workers. So unless your position is regulated by the Department of Transportation, Amazon said it will treat marijuana like alcohol (should make for an interesting office holiday party).  Other employers like Hospitality Ventures, a management group that runs Marriott and Hilton hotels, have also dropped marijuana testing to attract already hard-to-find staff. Everyone’s doing it. Last year, of the seven million drug tests conducted for employers by Quest Diagnostics, around 2.7% came back positive for marijuana. The number has been rising slowly, from 2% in 2016, as more states legalize recreational use. Speaking of legalization, Dave Clark, Amazon’s consumer boss, said the company supports legislation to decriminalize cannabis and encouraged other companies to get with it. Big picture: Amazon hopes its cool weed aunt energy, recent wage increases, and the introduction of a (poorly received) cry box will neutralize the slew of criticism it’s gotten around unsafe working conditions.

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GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada under construction in 2015. David Calvert/for The Washington Post via Getty Images Stat: Get ready for a surge in “Made in the Southwest” stickers. From January 2017 to January 2020, five states in the Southwest—Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada—accounted for 30% of the job growth in manufacturing, per the WSJ. Quote: “It’s a boomer power-play.” Research compliance specialist Portia Twidt told Bloomberg she decided to quit her job after her employer asked her to come back to work for a six-minute meeting. Companies that require workers to return to the office after 1+ year of WFH might be at risk of losing them to more remote-friendly companies.  Listen: A Death in Cryptoland is a podcast that tells the story of the bizarre circumstances around the reported death of Canada’s largest crypto exchange. (CBC)

FINANCE Ally Bank Tries to Live Up to Its Name Ally Bank became the first large bank to end the practice of charging overdraft fees—aka when you buy a $3 coffee but don’t have enough money in your account, so you pay an additional $35-or-so fee to your bank. Prior to the change, about one-in-12 of Ally’s customers overdrafted at one time or another. But while an overdraft fee can be “a major cause of anxiety” for customers, per Ally, getting rid of them isn’t expected to have much of an impact on the bank’s finances. Other banks aren’t on board Calls for an end to overdraft fees have been getting louder, and the most vocal critic is Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Last week, at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Warren called on the leaders of six major banks to end the practice—and singled out JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as “the star of the overdraft show.” Executives responded with, “Hey, look over there!” pointing to other ways they’re alleviating customers’ financial burdens, instead of making any promises regarding overdraft fees.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING Amazon Prime Day is coming June 21–22. Churchill Downs suspended racehorse trainer Bob Baffert after confirming that his horse, Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, failed a second drug test. The US slapped tariffs on more than $2 billion worth of goods from six countries over their plans to tax US tech companies, but then immediately suspended the tariffs to allow for negotiations. Microsoft will unveil a big update for Windows at an event on June 24. A record 41 women are now running Fortune 500 companies. Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in Division I men's basketball history, will retire from coaching Duke after this season.

SPONSORED BY KLAVIYO You and your customers have been through thick and thin. As a new normal begins, it's time to strengthen customer relationships that began online. How do you stay like ? Check out this new article from Klaviyo: 5 Ecommerce Marketing Strategies to Retain Your Customers Post-pandemic.

BREW'S BETS Just do it: How to read more books in the golden age of content. The awards we actually care about: The best “dumb internet videos” of all time. Brew mini: Beat your time from Tuesday here. Thursday conversation starter: We usually reserve these for Saturdays, but this one is too good to save. Pick four contiguous states for your breakaway nation.

GAMES Three Headlines and a Lie Not sure what’s going on this week, since all of the news stories we chose for Three Headlines and a Lie all sound like plots for low-budget horror movies. See if you can spot which headline is fake and then tell us which one you’d want to watch in a double feature with Sharknado. “Man has wrong leg amputated in “tragic” hospital mix-up” “Ohio art exhibit faces backlash over vending machine full of tongues” “Cannibal mice threaten Sydney homes and Australian farms” “Dracula's castle in Romania offers tourists vaccine”

SHARE THE BREW We think you should share the Brew. Not only is it a smart thing to do for your friends, it’s also the smartest way to get showered in free Brew swag and exclusive content. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a17a7110

ANSWER The vending machine of tongues does not exist to our best knowledge.

 

 Barack Obama admitted the one thing about Joe Biden that could cost Democrats everything

Kamala Harris insulted the U.S. military with this one sentence

[POLL] Who do you think is more deserving of a second chance in the NFL, cochise7787@gmail.com? Tebow or Kaepernick?

Ron DeSantis spoke one truth that has every Democrat seeing red

Republicans met with Joe Biden behind closed doors to hammer out this secret tax increase

 

 June 3, 2021

WATCH: Tucker Carlson goes through the emails Tucker Carlson laid out the case against Fauci tonight using his emails to show how he lied during the pandemic and says that he should be under criminal investigation: ... Read More ›

How I Fixed My Acid Reflux Thousands of Men and Women Worldwide Have Been Successful With Eliminating Their Heartburn Pain Within 2 Days, and Curing The Root Cause Of Acid Reflux Permanently... Read More ›

Jan. 6 Commission: Do Democrats Really Want 'the Facts'? After impeaching President Donald Trump for the so-called insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, House Democrats want to, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, “establish a bipartisan agreement for a 9/11-style... Read More ›

State orders gun owners to keep self-defense weapons locked up Lawmakers in Oregon have decided that every firearm in the state should be put under lock and key, a move that would prevent easy access should those gun owners need to defend themselves if ever... Read More ›

BREAKING: Facebook responds to news of Trump’s accounts being restored The news has just been breaking that Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been restored: ... Read More ›

Scandal-plagued Andrew Cuomo to host $10k-per-ticket fundraising dinner in NYC Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will host a campaign fundraising event in New York City this month and charge $10,000 a ticket as he faces state and federal investigations into a number of... Read More ›

Protect Your Family With The Haylo Safety Flare

1,000 people die each year after getting hit on the shoulder of the freeway because other drivers did not see them in time to avoid them. It takes less than 60 seconds to prevent a disaster from happening to you and your passengers... Read More ›

Top Headlines

 

Fauci CANCELED! Amazon, Barnes & Noble SCRUB Book Before Launch, The Reason Will Make You Cheer

 

How Much of Biden’s Agenda Can the Democrats Pass Alone?

 

Breaking: Judge Joe Brown Goes Off on Joe Biden AND Kamala Harris in HEATED Rant

 

Get Trump's 1776 Report Before It's Banned! (Sponsored)

 

Biden Shouldn’t Assume Netanyahu’s Successor Will Be A Pushover

 

Let’s Hope Kamala Harris Keeps Eating ‘No’ for Breakfast

FEATURED EVENT 1989 Pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square crushed by Chinese military READ MORE FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Josephine Baker READ MORE   June 03

  SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1865 George V king of United Kingdom 1967 Anderson Cooper American television journalist 1986 Rafael Nadal Spanish tennis player 1808 Jefferson Davis president of Confederate States of America 1925 Tony Curtis American actor 1926 Allen Ginsberg American poet

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2016: American boxer and social activist Muhammad Ali—who justified his self-proclaimed nickname “the Greatest” by becoming arguably the most admired and dominant heavyweight boxer in the history of the sport—died in Scottsdale, Arizona. [ Take our quiz about the world's greatest athletes.]

2006: Montenegro's parliament declared the republic's independence, severing some 88 years of union with Serbia.

2001: Mel Brooks's musical The Producers, starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, won a record-setting 12 Tony Awards. [Test your knowledge of theatre.]

1989: Iranian Shiʿi cleric Ruhollah Khomeini—who led the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 and later served as Iran's ultimate political and religious authority—died in Tehrān. [Take our quiz about the geography of Iran.]

1985: The talk show Larry King Live debuted on CNN , and it became hugely popular, in part because of King's easygoing interviewing style. [How much do you know about pop culture?]

1965: Ed White emerged from the orbital spacecraft Gemini 4 and became the first American astronaut to walk in space. [ Test your knowledge of famous astronauts and cosmonauts.]

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

 

Joe Biden Makes Racist Comments About Black Entrepreneurs

 

Hero Bystanders Save Female Officer after Man Attacks Her, Brings Her to the Ground

 

Pentagon Ridiculously Defends Its Embrace of Wokeism

 

House Republicans Skewer Biden’s ‘Pathway to Bankruptcy’

 

Kamala Harris’s aides reportedly in ‘panic’ after Joe Biden made her his migrant czar

Columnists Democrats Want to Destroy Democracy to Save It Kurt Schlichter They Lied, People Died: Media and Dems' Deadly Wuhan Narrative Larry O'Connor Riffed from the Headlines: Mainstream Media Has Meltdown Over Matt Gaetz Brad Slager Just Shut Up Already, Facebook Derek Hunter Never Let a Plague Go To Waste Victor Davis Hanson The China Syndrome Dinesh D'Souza Why Is Ancestry.com Protecting White Serial Killers? Ann Coulter Jan. 6 Commission: Do Democrats Really Want 'the Facts'? Larry Elder Biden Shoots for the Stars with Astronomical Spending Proposals Veronique de Rugy		Tipsheet If That's What the New Woke Pentagon Considers 'Essential' To Our National Defense, We're Doomed Matt Vespa With Its Murder Rate, St. Louis Shouldn't Even Think of Defunding the Police Rebecca Downs If There's Anybody Who Gets to Say 'I Told You So,' It's Rand Paul Rebecca Downs Judge Rules Against Gov. Kristi Noem in Fireworks Display Case Rebecca Downs Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Stepped Down Over Real Estate Fiasco, But Her Israel Remarks Are Worse Matt Vespa Joe Biden Keeps Equating Fourth of July Freedoms with Vaccines Rebecca Downs Liberals Lose It As DeSantis Signs Bill Protecting Women's Sports Carson Swick
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Curiosity and Candor Jackie Gingrich Cushman The Light of the American Dream Armstrong Williams The 'Can't Do' Narrative Continues Cal Thomas Biden’s Budget: Serious? No. Radical? Yes. Jenny Beth Martin Japan’s New Anti-Fossil Fuel Approach Will Compromise Its Energy Security Vijay Jayaraj Did the CDC’s Lack of Transparency Lead to More EVALI Deaths? Lindsey Stroud Democracy, as Defined by Khamenei Cyrus Yaqubi		Six Bombshell Revelations from Fauci's Emails Spencer Brown Lawmakers Come to Nancy Mace's Defense Following Vandalism Incident Madeline Leesman Why Trump's Blog Lasted Less Than a Month Matt Vespa Political Cartoons Bearing Arms OR Governor Signs Bill Mandating Storage, Barring Guns In Capitol | Tom Knighton Background Checks Dip Slightly In May, But Demand For Guns Still High | Cam Edwards NY Mayors Rally Behind Bill Permitting Lawsuits Against Gun Makers | Tom Knighton Ebony Writer Blames GOP For Failures Of California Gun Control Laws | Tom Knighton Gun Control Not The Answer To Miami Mass Shooting | Cam Edwards
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