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TOGETHER WITH

Good morning. *SNL host voice* Ladies and gentlemen... Soup Season. —Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman

MARKETS Nasdaq 14,823.43 +1.73% S&P 4,438.26 +1.71% Dow 34,912.56 +1.56% 10-Year 1.516% -2.2 bps Bitcoin $57,704.44 +0.36% Walgreens $50.77 +7.43% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: The S&P had its best day since March after four major US banks (yep, even Wells Fargo) reported meaty profits during the last quarter—a sign of a healthy economy. Walgreens stock popped after it revealed a plan for the future that’s focused on health care. Economy: Is that a 2 in front of jobless claims data? The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped to 293,000 last week, the first time it fell below 300k since the pandemic began.

COVID-19 State of the Vax Francis Scialabba Roughly two-thirds of the US population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. 8.9 million have received a Pfizer or Moderna booster since August 13, and millions of little kids may soon be eligible for a first shot. It’s...a lot to follow, so we figured now’s a good time for a State of the Vax. How about a boost? After 23 days as the lone federally approved booster shot, Pfizer could soon get company. An FDA panel on Thursday recommended a 50 microgram dose of the Moderna vaccine for use as a booster (half the amount of a typical dose). The Moderna booster would be available to the same eligibility groups as the Pfizer shot: Seniors aged 65+, nursing home residents, and adults aged 50 and up with underlying medical conditions. Adults aged 18–49 with health risks, and those aged 18–64 with a job/living situation that puts them more at risk of getting Covid. The same panel will meet today to decide whether to recommend J&J’s booster shot. It’s not a home run, but experts still anticipate authorization given the single dose’s lower effectiveness. Next, the FDA will rule on whether to authorize the boosters. The decision will then move to the CDC and, ultimately, state health departments. And the kids? As it stands, Pfizer’s vaccine is the only one approved for Americans younger than 18 (and as young as 12). That said, US children aged 5–11 could become eligible for the world’s most preferred vaccine within weeks. The FDA will consider Pfizer’s request to approve its shot for emergency use in younger children on October 26 (with a ruling expected as early as Halloween). The shot would likely be one-third of the dose given to ages 12 and up. Moderna is still waiting on FDA approval for use of its shot in adolescents aged 12–17. And finally, a Covid update: Looking a lot better. Infections in the US have fallen 22% from two weeks ago to a 7-day average of 88,612. In early September, average cases peaked at around 160,000.—MK

TECH LinkedIn's New China Strategy Giphy There's one less place in China to give kudos to your coworker on their 1-year anniversary. LinkedIn said it was shutting down its professional networking platform in China, citing “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements.” Why it matters: Microsoft-owned LinkedIn was one of the few US internet companies to still have a presence in China, where the government watches internet users like Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and purges content it doesn’t like. China blocked Twitter and Facebook in 2009, and Google left a year after—but LinkedIn took a different path, launching a local version in 2014 that abided by China’s censorship rules. That...hasn’t worked out great. The Chinese government has put pressure on LinkedIn to follow its censorship guidelines more closely, while US lawmakers have ripped the platform for following the guidelines at all. Still, China is not a major market for Microsoft, accounting for just 1.8% of global revenue, according to President Brad Smith. Looking ahead...LinkedIn won’t abandon China entirely. Later this year it’s going to launch a new job board app, InJobs.—NF

FOOD AND BEV Domino's Gives Out too Much Ranch Domino's same-store sales fell 1.9% annually in Q3—the first time they’ve dropped since 2011. The hand-tossed king did gangbusters last year as diners stayed home and ordered in, but this summer was a different story. The pizza chain blamed three factors for flattening its dough in Q3: 1) a shortage of workers 2) stimmies to consumers drying up and 3) more open restaurant dining rooms. To partially fix the first problem, Domino’s CEO Richard Allison will ask drivers to fulfill more orders on the same route. "I don't see why drivers should ever have to get out of their cars," he said. More headwinds for Domino’s: Some Covid trends are reverting to pre-lockdown norms. While the fall is typically most pizza chains’ strongest time of the year (it’s the official meal of NFL Sundays), about 30% of US diners said in September they’d be ordering delivery less going forward, according to research firm Revenue Management Solutions. Zoom out: Allison said Domino’s will face these challenges from a “position of strength” and, given the stock’s slight uptick on the day, investors agree.—MM

TOGETHER WITH FUNDRISE Give Your Portfolio Some Structure Think about your current investments. You most likely have a mix of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Now, this is a great place to start, but these three assets are correlated, or “tied” to each other—which means if one starts to fall, there’s a good chance the others will, too.  Fundrise hates a wobbly portfolio: that’s why they’ve made it so easy to invest in real estate. As a private market asset, real estate is generally uncorrelated to the public market, keeping your portfolio on steady ground. And not only does owning hot properties across the country sound cool, it is pretty cool. Historically, portfolios with some real estate allocations have shown consistent returns, more annual income, and lower volatility.  With flexible investment options, you can join Fundrise today. Use their intuitive investing platform to start building—and growing—a powerful portfolio that matches your goals. Sounds pretty solid.

GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Giphy Stat: It’ll be a winter of discontent...and skyrocketing gas bills. The US households that use natural gas to heat their homes should expect to pay an average of 30% more on their bills compared to last year, per the Energy Information Administration. Even if the winter is 10% warmer than average, bills will be 22% higher. Quote: “All the aliens that I’ve ever met, they have no feelings.” Speaking to TMZ, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson responded to singer Demi Lovato's comments that calling extraterrestrial life forms "aliens" is derogatory. He also noted that Demi was coming from the right place. Read: A slightly wonky but informative thread on the Covid endgame. (Trevor Bedford)

QUIZ “You Smell Like Quiz.” “I Am Quiz.” The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to taking off your ski boots after a long day on the slopes. It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING The SpringHill Company, a media company cofounded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, sold a minority stake to investors including Nike at a $725 million valuation. The McPlant burger is coming to some US McDonald’s locations next month. Elon Musk said his satellite internet service Starlink is talking to airlines about using it for high-speed wi-fi on flights. Banksy’s self-destructed painting sold for more than $25.4 million at auction, the biggest sale ever for the artist. The third-party cookie: What is it, why is it going away, and what’s next?

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BREW'S BETS The topsy turvy workplace: The pandemic completely changed the HR game, from remote work to the historic labor shortage. Check out HR Brew’s big launch event next week for expert advice on how to navigate a workplace that’s changed forever. Follow Friday: Jamie Costa does a pitch-perfect Robin Williams impression, and Kira Wennerstrom eats canned foods dated 1904 she found in the cellar of her apartment. What to watch: Dopeskick on Hulu tells the story of America’s opioid crisis from a variety of perspectives.

GAMES Friday Puzzle This one’s fun, because it requires two rounds of rearranging letters. First, unscramble the following five jumbles to create five actual words. Then, use the clues provided to extract certain letters; take that jumble and rearrange to form the name of a country. KERWC. Take the 1st and 2nd letter. LZEA. Take the 1st, 2nd, and the 4th letter. KURNT. Take the 1st and the 4th letter. IASB. Take the 2nd and 3rd letter. SUKD. Take the 1st and 3rd letter.

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ANSWER 1. Wreck 2. Zeal 3. Trunk 4. Bias 5. Dusk When you extract the letters provided in the clues you get WRZELTNAIDS which can be unscrambled to form Switzerland. Columnists We're Not Playing the Never Trump, Cruise Ship Conservatives' Game Kurt Schlichter Biden Can't Fix What He Shattered Larry O'Connor With Never Trump Outlets Fighting, Jennifer Rubin Enters the Octagon Brad Slager The Teenage Girl Who Shall Not Be Mentioned Tim Graham The Campus 'Diversity' Menace Comes to Yale Josh Hammer Are the Good Times Over for Joe? Pat Buchanan Bill de Blasio Is On the Way Out, But His Mindset Lingers Michael Barone The Biden White House Will Pay for Playing Inflation Games David Harsanyi How Low Will the Loudoun County School Board Go? Jane Robbins Tipsheet Biden Gave an Update to the Nation About the Private Sector Vaccine Mandate Leah Barkoukis What Caused a Judge to Order an Investigation into the Jail Conditions for January 6 Defendants Matt Vespa Why is a U.S. Senator Going After a Supreme Court Justice? Rebecca Downs Joe Biden's Commission on Court Packing, Term Limits, and Other SCOTUS Reforms Releases Draft Report Materials Rebecca Downs Guess Who's The New Betting Favorite To Win The 2024 Election Scott Morefield Bill Clinton Hospitalized For Infection Leah Barkoukis Poll: Majority of Voters Believe 'Cheating Affected Outcome of 2020 Election' Rebecca Downs ADVERTISEMENT The GOP Donor Class is Complicit in America’s Decline as a Constitutional Republic David Thomas Roberts Financial 'Stop-and-Frisk' Is Coming Soon Erick Erickson American Kids Can't Read, Write, Or Do Math, But Are No 1. In Critical Race Theory Ilana Mercer Americans’ Economic Confidence Plummets Amid Increasing Inflation and Shortages Chris Talgo The Congressional Squid Game Charles Sauer Rep. Chip Roy Had Quite the Response When HuffPo Tries to Relitigate 2020 Election Rebecca Downs Psaki Defends Klain's 'High Class' Tweet, Touts Economic 'Progress' As Inflation Soars Spencer Brown January 6 Select Committee to Refer Steve Bannon for Criminal Contempt Rebecca Downs Political Cartoons Bearing Arms NJ Parents Freaking Over Gun Store Opening Near School | Tom Knighton Oregon Court Revives Challenge To Under-21 Gun Ban | Cam Edwards NYPD Cop With “Proper Cause” & “Training” Accused Of Love Triangle Murder | Ranjit Singh If You Claim Red Flag Laws Save Lives, You Better Back It Up | Tom Knighton Self-Defense Is A Human Right | Cam Edwards   Axios AM By Mike Allen ·Oct 15, 2021 Happy Friday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,192 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. 🪖 At 12:30 p.m. ET today, join Axios' Margaret Talev and Bryan Walsh for a virtual event on advanced tech in defense. Guests include Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Palantir global defense lead Doug Philippone. Register.     1 big thing: Coming vacation spike Photo: "Axios on HBO"   Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky foresees a travel spike at year's end as workers cash in a flood of use-it-or-lose-it paid time off. "We're going to be entering ... a new golden age of travel, where suddenly people ... have a record accrual of PTO and they've been landlocked," Chesky told me during a wide-ranging interview for "Axios on HBO." Chesky shared exclusive Airbnb polling of 7,500 consumers in five big markets — U.S., Mexico, U.K., France, Australia — from Sept. 20-26. The most interesting finding: Around half of people are in danger of losing PTO by year's end. A data point on flexible work: 64% of people polled by Airbnb said they're interested in living away from the company, then traveling to the office occasionally. Remote work is turning out to be Airbnb's friend: People are booking three-or four-day weekends, then working from the Airbnb on, say, Friday or Monday. And they can work all summer from an Airbnb. Chesky said half of Airbnb business now consists of stays longer than a week. A fifth of the business comes from stays longer than a month. Watch a clip from the interview.     2. Biden calls climate "systemic risk" Zailey and Zavery Segura — and their mom, Karen Smith — wade to the kids' father's house after Hurricane Nicholas hit Galveston, Texas, last month. Photo: Mark Felix for The Washington Post via Getty Images   A White House report out this morning says climate change poses "systemic risks" to the U.S. financial system, Axios Generate co-author Ben Geman writes. Why it matters: The administration will increasingly weave climate risk into policies and regulations throughout the government. A White House "roadmap" aims to build a "climate-resilient" economy: Climate change will be considered in long-term budget forecasts. HUD plans to factor climate risk into federally insured or guaranteed mortgages. FEMA will revise building standards in flood zones. Labor Department retirement fund managers will weigh climate change in investment decisions, reversing Trump-era policies. What we're watching: A separate strategy out later this year will focus on how banks should confront these risks. Share this story. Go deeper: Read the 40-page report ... White House fact sheet.     3. ✈️ Rusty-pilot warning Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   Midair mistakes are being reported after COVID kept some 100,000 pilots out of the cockpit for many months, Bloomberg reports. Dozens of mistakes have been confidentially declared in an FAA-funded database designed to identify emerging safety threats. "It is really a critical situation," Lufthansa pilot Uwe Harter, who is also EVP for technical and safety standards at the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, told Bloomberg. The International Civil Aviation Organization, which sets industry standards, and the International Air Transport Association, plus Europe's top aviation regulator, have published training guides to help airlines transition out-of-practice pilots back into the air. Keep reading.     A message from Bank of America Caring for the underserved in East L.A.     The staff and the patients at the grassroots health clinic AltaMed have adjusted to COVID-19, providing new ways of delivering care to the Hispanic-Latino communities they serve. Find out how Bank of America is supporting their work with a $500,000 donation, part of its $100 million commitment.     4. Wagering on Fed chair Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   Speculators are betting heavily that President Biden will give Fed chair Jerome Powell a second term, Axios Closer author Courtenay Brown writes. Why it matters: Sizzling betting markets on political outcomes are a sign of rising consumer fervor for online wagering. State of play: Buying in on Powell's renomination costs 73 cents. If you're right, you win $1, less fees. Put another way, the prediction market sees a 73% chance Powell gets another four years. Trading activity is double what it was in 2017, the last time there was a Fed chair market, according to data from PredictIt, the political trading platform most watched by traders. Powell's term expires in February. Biden's announcement is due any day. PredictIt told Axios this market's most active trading day was when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said earlier this month she wouldn't support a Powell renomination. The second most active day? Last week, when Warren doubled down. Financial regulators say no user can put more than $850 on a single contract. So mega-bets on the next Fed chair aren't on PredictIt — they're in interest rate futures. Share this story.     5. White House sees Hill deal "soon" Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gets ready for a CNBC interview outside the White House on Wednesday. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images A White House official tells me talks with Democratic lawmakers on the final shape of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda "are accelerating ... [T]his progress means we can conclude negotiations soon." "There's urgency and purpose in our conversations behind bringing these game-changing economic growth plans home for families, and we feel good about the momentum," the official said. State of play: Democrats are wrangling over how to cut Biden's social-spending plans from $3.5 trillion over 10 years to around $2 trillion — still a historic increase in the safety net. Share this story.     6. "First big energy shock of the green era" Cover: Justin Metz/The Economist   The global energy crisis — which has brought $3.30-a-gallon gas to the U.S., gas lines to the U.K. and blackouts to China and India — is exposing "deeper problems as the world shifts to a cleaner energy system," The Economist writes in its cover story (subscription). These include "inadequate investment in renewables and some transition fossil fuels, rising geopolitical risks and flimsy safety buffers in power markets." The bottom line: "Without rapid reforms there will be more energy crises and, perhaps, a popular revolt against climate policies."     7. Bill Clinton hospitalized Former President Bill Clinton speaks at Hank Aaron's funeral in Atlanta in January. Photo: Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves via AP Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to UC Irvine Medical Center on Tuesday for a non-COVID-related infection, his spokesperson Angel Ureña tweeted. Clinton, 75, remains hospitalized. The medical team has administered IV antibiotics and fluids, Axios' Shawna Chen writes from the statement by Clinton's physicians. "After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well," the doctors said. "We hope to have him go home soon." The Clinton Foundation said he was in the L.A. area for private events related to the foundation.     8. 📚 First look: Ken Auletta v. Harvey Weinstein Cover: Penguin Press   Ken Auletta, longtime author of The New Yorker's "Annals of Communications" profiles, will be out in July with "Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Complicity," Penguin Press tells me. The publisher calls Auletta's 12th book "a deep dive into the life and career of Harvey Weinstein — how he rose to become one of the most iconic figures in the world of movies, how he used that position to feed his monstrous sexual appetites, and why he was allowed to operate with such impunity for so many years." Backstory: Back in 2002, Auletta wrote a New Yorker profile of Weinstein, then a Hollywood mogul at the height of his powers. The title: "Beauty and the Beast." According to Auletta's publisher: The profile created waves for exposing how volatile, even violent, Weinstein was to his employees and collaborators. But there was a much darker story that was just out of reach: rumors had long swirled that Weinstein was a sexual predator, but no one was willing to go on the record, and in the end he and the magazine concluded they couldn’t close the case. Many years later, the publisher says, Auletta shared "his reporting notes and all that he knew with Ronan Farrow, and [cheered] him along with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey as they broke their pioneering stories and wrote their bestselling books." "Auletta has spent the past three years constructing a full reckoning." More backstory.     A message from Bank of America Serving communities impacted by the coronavirus     To support AltaMed’s mission of providing care to underserved residents of L.A. and Orange Counties, Bank of America provided a $500,000 grant. The goal: Support outfitting and operating eight evaluation and testing sites in L.A. and Orange County. Watch to learn more. Today's News Articles Look What's Being Sold On The Black Market Under Biden   Read This Alert >>> FBI Agents SWARM The Scene   Read This Alert >>> Trump Enemy Issues EMERGENCY Statement - Red Alert!   Read This Alert >>> Top Trump Official Drops FOX NEWS Bombshell - The Media Is Freaking Out!   Read This Alert >>> - AD CONTENT -   Bombshell OAN Funding Discovery   Read This Alert >>> Court Again Lets Texas Abortion Law Stand Special: GM and Toyota Shut Down Senator Sinema Rejects Vote on Big Biden Package Rob Carson Podcast: 2020 Election Truth Is Unstoppable     October 15 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY John L. Sullivan American boxer READ MORE FEATURED EVENT 1959 Final conference on Antarctic Treaty READ MORE Advertisement Advertisement MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2018: American investor and philanthropist Paul Allen, who cofounded Microsoft, died at age 65. [Test your knowledge of tech companies.] 2003: China became the third country to launch a crewed spaceflight; Shenzhou 5, which was piloted by Yang Liwei, orbited Earth 14 times during the 21-hour flight. [Take our famous astronauts and cosmonauts quiz.] 1993: South Africans Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were named the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.” [How much do you know about the Nobel Prize?] 1987: A military coup in Burkina Faso overthrew head of state Thomas Sankara, killing him and eight others. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa.] 1969: President Cabdirashiid Cali Shermaʾarke (Abdirashid Ali Shermarke) of Somalia was assassinated. [Test your knowledge of African leaders.] 1966: Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party, the mission of which was to protect African Americans from police brutality; it later developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that, among other things, called for the arming of all African Americans and the release of Blacks from jail. [Learn the answers to five FAQs about the Black Panther Party.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1931 A.P.J. Abdul Kalam president of India 1844 Friedrich Nietzsche German philosopher 1542 Akbar Mughal emperor 1926 Michel Foucault French philosopher and historian -70 Virgil Roman poet 1943 Penny Marshall American actress and director       SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY