Good morning.
If you’re reading this, you know that the secret sauce to any epic
Fourth of July weekend is to begin with a dose of business news. You’ll
be the life of the party once you hit ’em with the employment stats.
Some
housekeeping notes: Despite the holiday, you’re not getting rid of us
this weekend. We’ll be in your inbox tomorrow morning with Sunday
Edition, then on Monday with a special newsletter (because the markets
are closed).
Be safe, have fun, and remember—face paint is still cool.
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Nasdaq
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14,639.33
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S&P
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4,352.34
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Dow
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34,786.35
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Bitcoin
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$33,213.53
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10-Year
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1.437%
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IBM
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$140.02
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*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET.
Here's what these numbers mean.
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Markets: Stocks
kept up their record-high-hitting ways following June’s bullish jobs
report. Having risen for seven consecutive trading days, the S&P is
on its longest winning streak since August. Not all stocks gained—IBM dipped after its president stepped down just 14 months after taking the role.
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Fourth of July travel: How's this for a milestone? The number of passengers the TSA screened on Thursday was 3% above levels on July 1, 2019 (which was a Monday, but still...).
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Giphy
And that’s if we’re being tough graders. The US economy added 850,000 jobs in June, marking the biggest monthly gain in almost a year and topping expectations.
The unemployment rate ticked up from
5.8% to 5.9%, but it’s not cause for alarm. More people started looking
for jobs last month, which increased the denominator in the
unemployment rate equation (unemployment rate = number of unemployed
people / total number of people who are currently working or looking for
work).
Major themes from the jobs report
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Leisure and hospitality : The sector most battered by the pandemic added 343,000 jobs in June, accounting for 40% of the total gains.
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Wages : Average
hourly pay rose 3.6% in June over a year earlier, and it's 6.6% above
levels from February 2020, before Covid-19 hit the US. Inflation doesn’t
hold a candle to that wage growth.
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Remote work: 14.4% of US employees were teleworking because of the pandemic. That’s down from 16.6% in May and a 35% peak in May 2020.
Big picture: Things
are trending up in the labor market as we head into the height of
summer. The 850,000 headline number represents a big improvement from
May’s jobs report (+583,000 jobs) and April’s (+269,000).
Challenges
remain, of course. The economy is still 6.8 million jobs short of its
pre-pandemic levels—not because employers aren’t hiring, but because
they’re struggling to find workers to fill all their open positions.
Economists hope that the increase in job seekers in June is a sign the
labor crunch could smooth out by fall.
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Amazon
Andy Jassy
starts his first day as Amazon’s CEO on Monday, July 5—a cruel joke on
departing CEO Jeff Bezos’s part. Let’s get to know him.
The New York
native wears a Harvard sweatshirt unironically, since he went there for
both undergrad and an MBA. In 1997, he started his Amazon career as a marketing manager. Five years later, he was chosen to be Bezos’s “shadow advisor,” another way of saying chief of staff.
Not long
after, Jassy changed Amazon forever by coming up with and executing on
the idea for Amazon’s cloud computing service, Amazon Web Services,
which he currently leads. AWS now accounts for 60% of Amazon’s operating
profits.
Here’s what Bezos had to say
about Jassy at Amazon’s May shareholder meeting: “He has the highest of
high standards, that I guarantee that Andy will never let the universe
make us typical.”
Some fun facts: Jassy
loves beef jerky and Dave Matthews Band, hosts wing-eating
competitions, and is a minority owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.
And some less-fun facts: Jassy will have to fill some size 16 shoes as he confronts growing antitrust scrutiny of Amazon and unusually high turnover in the company’s C-suite.
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U.S. Air Force
We know
you’re running around this morning putting the finishing touches on your
deviled eggs and strawberry pretzel salad before tomorrow’s Fourth of
July jamboree, but we’re still going to pop in with a few fireworks
facts before things get too explosive. According to the WSJ...
1. Supply
chain issues are back again to dull your holiday. Firework supply is
expected to drop ~30% across the country with logistics all scrambled
due to Covid.
2. Not
helping: 90% of US fireworks are made in China, so logjams at ports over
there mean a reduction or delay in getting supply over here.
3. Retailers warn that you might have to pay as much as 25% more than you’re used to for some fireworks.
4. Last
year, firework sales jumped to $1.9 billion from $1 billion because
there was simply nothing else to do except blow things up.
5. Massachusetts is the only state with a total ban on the sale of consumer fireworks. Thanks, Ben Affleck.
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Busà Photography / Getty Images
Stat: Want to hear a funny joke? New York is dead. Manhattan real estate prices hit an all-time high
in Q2, with the median resale price for Manhattan apartments increasing
to $999,000. More than 220 penthouses have been sold in the borough so
far this year, a 35% bump from the same period in 2019.
Quote: “I just say, don’t judge me and I am human—I’m you. I just happen to run a little faster.”
US track star Sha’Carri Richardson went on NBC to apologize
after testing positive for marijuana, which is on the World Anti-Doping
Agency’s list of banned substances. The positive test means she won’t
be able to compete in the 100-meter race at the Tokyo Olympics, but
could be available for the 4x100 meter relay.
Read: The three simple rules that underscore the danger of Delta. (The Atlantic)
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Ian McKinnon
In this
new Summer 2021 segment, the Brew’s personal finance writer Ryan Lasker
is nose-diving into our inbox to address your personal finance
questions. Submit your money woes here.
Should college grads start investing before paying off all student loans?—Morgan from Rhode Island
My answer to most “should” questions is “it depends.” No exception here.
Many feel
rushed to pay down their loans ASAP, but there’s an argument for not
putting every extra dollar toward debt. You have two financial
priorities: Make all the minimum payments on your debt, and build an
emergency fund worth at least three months of essential expenses.
Deciding
what to do with any extra money takes some calculus (not the integral
kind). If you think an investment will return more than your highest
interest rate, you might want to start investing some money.
- Say
your only debt is a student loan at 5% interest. If you think an
investment will return more than 5% this year, investing might be a good
shout.
- But if you also have credit card debt at a 20% interest rate, focus on eliminating that first.
Of course, nobody knows how your investments will perform, and we haven’t even talked about what you
want to do. If you decide to invest, consider opening a retirement
account; even a small investment now will grow to be significant by the
time you’re posting your “just retired!” Insta decades from now.
P.S.: Later this summer Ryan will be writing a twice-weekly personal finance newsletter to make you smarter about your money. Become one of the first subscribers.
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Didi
shares fell 5.3% just two days after its IPO because China opened up a
cybersecurity investigation into the ride-hailing company.
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Lordstown Motors, an electric truck startup that’s been accused of misleading investors, is reportedly being investigated by the DOJ.
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Citigroup is joining its big-bank peers in raising pay for junior bankers.
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Tesla delivered more than 200,000 vehicles in a quarter for the first time.
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Every other
week, Brew's Bookshelf recommends a few of our favorite business reads.
Today, we chose two that are perfect for a long weekend by the lake,
pool, and even dry land.
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This week, Juul said it would pay $40 million to settle North
Carolina allegations that it was illegally marketing its products to
teens. Lauren Etter investigates Juul's relationship with Big Tobacco
and Silicon Valley in The Devil's Playbook.
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Rana El Kaliouby has worked for a long time to humanize our tech, and in Girl Decoded she explains why she's so dedicated to her mission.
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Let this morning's Brew Crossword be the last work your brain has to do for the next 72 hours.
But still try it, because it's a great puzzle and it's Fourth of July themed. Solve it here. | |
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July 03
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FEATURED BIOGRAPHY
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Leoš Janáček
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FEATURED EVENT
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1863
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Battle of Gettysburg ended
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MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY
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1976: An Israeli commando squad, led by Dan Shomron, launched a rescue of hostages held by airplane hijackers in Entebbe
, Uganda.
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Trusted by over 520,000 readers, The Bearded Patriot is your source for BREAKING NEWS
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July 2, 2021
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