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| Oklahoma Governor Seeks Larger Event for Trump's Tulsa Rally |
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TOGETHER WITH
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Good morning. Been fiddling around with our Photoshop subscription...when you get to the Bezos story reply and let us know how we did.
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NASDAQ
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9,726.02
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+ 1.43%
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S&P
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3,066.59
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+ 0.83%
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DJIA
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25,763.16
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+ 0.62%
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GOLD
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1,732.20
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- 0.29%
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10-YR
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0.730%
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+ 2.50 bps
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OIL
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37.07
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+ 2.23%
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*As of market close
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Markets: The major indexes erased big losses
earlier in the day to end up solidly in the green. Investors are trying
to decide whether they should worry about rising caseloads in some
states or cheer reopenings in others.
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Economy: The Fed said it would now buy individual corporate bonds—not just ETFs—in order to keep the market functioning properly. And this morning, we’ll get a major reading on May retail sales. Economists are expecting an 8% increase following a 16.4% plunge in April.
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Francis Scialabba
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a historic decision
on workplace protections for LGBTQ workers. It ruled 6–3 that
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is
illegal under a Civil Rights-era law.
The backstory: Some
states have passed laws prohibiting LGBTQ employment discrimination,
but there was no protection at the federal level. Over half of the U.S.’
8 million LGBTQ workers live in states that hadn't passed protections.
Until yesterday
The court
took up three cases of alleged employment discrimination—two involving
gay men and one involving a transgender woman—where plaintiffs claimed
to have been fired on the basis of their LGBTQ identities.
All three
claimed protection under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That
law explicitly bars discrimination “on the basis of sex.” The question
for the justices was whether that phrase just applies to biological sex or extends to sexual orientation and gender identity.
- The majority
decided...all of the above. “An employer who fires an individual for
being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions
it wouldn’t have questioned in members of a different sex,” wrote
Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority opinion, which included Chief
Justice John Roberts and the court’s four left-leaning justices.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh
wrote in a dissent that the issue should have been settled by Congress,
not the Supreme Court, and Justice Samuel Alito argued the law only
refers to biological sex.
Bottom line: Pick your news cliché—this is a landmark, major, historic victory for the LGBTQ rights movement. And it was an unlikely one given the court’s conservative trajectory since President Trump appointed Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.
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Toby Howell (he had a lot of time this weekend, folks)
Amazon said yesterday that CEO Jeff Bezos was available to testify before the House to answer questions over an antitrust probe into the tech sector.
Bezos testifying would be Prime time TV
The last time a major tech CEO set off fireworks on Capitol Hill was when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg explained the internet to lawmakers during the Cambridge Analytica hearings in 2018.
This time around, the House will focus on whether Amazon and other tech companies have unfairly squashed competition.
Lawmakers
have also asked the CEOs of Apple, Facebook, and Google to testify over
other allegations of competition-busting practices. But you have to
think that Jeff “world’s-richest-man” Bezos will be the main event
(plus, he's never testified on Capitol Hill before).
Zoom out: Rather than hurting Big Tech, the pandemic seems to have made these firms more ubiquitous, and lawmakers are eager to ramp up their pre-COVID attempts to limit the companies' influence.
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Francis Scialabba
Ever since
the coronavirus grounded flights, airlines have found themselves in a
cash crunch not seen since Brett ran out of meal credits freshman year
of college.
Yesterday, United Airlines made a plan to boost its cash reserves
that includes snagging a $5 billion loan from three major banks. The
carrier put up its frequent flier program as collateral, an
unprecedented move no airline has tried since last Friday, when American
Airlines also said it would mortgage its loyalty program to secure a government loan.
- Loyalty programs have
been a lifeline for airlines when very few people are flying—United says
its MileagePlus rewards program is worth over $20 billion and rakes in more than $5 billion in cash per year.
Bottom line: United is still burning through $40 million a day,
but with an uptick in air travel, federal loans from the CARES Act, and
projections of $17 billion in total liquidity by the end of Q3, things
are looking (kind of) up for the U.S.’ second-largest airline.
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Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Andrew Lelling announced
that six former eBay employees are being charged for an extensive
intimidation campaign against a Boston-area couple who reportedly
criticized the company in their online newsletter.
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The charges: cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.
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The specifics: Mailing the couple a
Halloween mask of a bloody pig face, boxes of live cockroaches and
spiders, and a book about surviving the loss of a partner. Doxing the
couple by posting their address on Craigslist and soliciting sexual
partners. There’s more.
The
harassment was “a systematic campaign fueled by the resources of a
Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorize this
middle aged couple,” Lelling said.
If you’re
thinking “that’s just a few rotten apples”...Lelling counters that given
the involvement of multiple higher-ups (including, ironically, a former
head of safety and security), the harassment can’t be written off as
“rogue” behavior.
For its
part, eBay investigated the suspicious activity last August following an
FBI tip and fired all six employees a month later.
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Giphy
That’s Parasite director
Bong Joon Ho accepting an Academy Award in February, moments before
enjoying both the most memorable and least memorable night of his life.
Yesterday, we learned we’ll have to wait longer for another Bong gem—the Oscars will be delayed
to April 25 from February 28 because of the coronavirus. That means the
eligibility window for feature films is also being pushed back from
Dec. 31, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021.
Zoom out: The
pandemic has halted the vast majority of film production globally,
decimated theater chains, and delayed the summer’s most anticipated
releases. It wasn’t until last Friday that Hollywood studios were
allowed to restart film and TV production.
In delaying
the awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' goal is to
“provide the flexibility filmmakers need to finish and release their
films without being penalized for something beyond anyone’s control.”
+ While we’re here: The Academy said it’s putting together a task force to develop new diversity and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility by July 31.
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T-Mobile suffered a major outage across the U.S.
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The FDA has pulled its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized.
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he'll talk to Congress about oversight/disclosure of Paycheck Protection Program funds.
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24 Hour Fitness filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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BP will cut the value of its assets by up to $17.5 billion because of what it says is weak demand for energy.
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The Supreme Court upheld a permit for a proposed $8 billion pipeline to tunnel under the Appalachian Trail.
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The last time the Oscars were pushed back was in 1981. What incident led to the delay?
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The attempted assassination of Pres. Ronald Reagan.
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