WORK

This Chart Is Back...and It's Worse Than Last Week

The U.S. labor market woke up from a weeklong nightmare to a real-life horror story. In the last two weeks of March, nearly 10 million Americans filed for unemployment, about 6% of the total workforce. 

A record 3.3 million claims filed the week ending March 21 practically crashed data visualization tools. But yesterday’s news that 6.6 million claims were filed last week had economists toppling out of their ergonomic spinny chairs.

Wrap your head around this

If the number of people who filed claims in the last two weeks of March formed a U.S. state, it’d be the 11th largest behind Michigan. 

The hardest hit? Jobless claims in New Hampshire, Indiana, North Carolina, Michigan, and Louisiana rose 4,000% or more. In terms of actual volume, over 878,000 Californians, 366,000 New Yorkers, and almost 406,000 Pennsylvanians filed. Ohio logged more claims in the last two weeks than it did in all of 2019. 

• While the pandemic initially whacked sectors like tourism and hospitality, job cuts are now getting deeper in industries that had been more shielded, like education, healthcare, law, and tech. 

One silverish lining: As part of the rescue package, the government is allowing more types of workers to apply for pandemic relief funds, such as independent contractors and the self-employed. 

Looking ahead 

Unemployment numbers could get worse. Just this week, over 300,000 retail workers were furloughed. And the St. Louis Fed recently predicted job losses could total 47 million.

The March jobs report will be released this morning, but it’ll paint an incomplete picture since surveys were conducted the second week of March (before all those record unemployment claims). 

The April report should provide a better indicator of how the pandemic has affected the U.S. job market. Citi economists told CNN they predict 10 million lost jobs this month and unemployment rising above 10%. 

GEOPOLITICS

One Game of Telephone Shocks Oil Markets Back to Life

Oil prices had their best day ever following President Trump’s tweetnouncement that the power brokers of the global oil industry—Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin—appear to be working together on dramatic supply cuts.

• Axios’s Felix Salmon mused, “In terms of dollar value of assets affected, is this the most market-moving tweet of all time?”

It's certainly a significant development. Remember, last month’s OPEC+ meeting ended in chaos when the Russians and Saudis couldn’t agree to extend or deepen existing supply cuts. 

• What happened next: The Saudis launched a price war, global demand collapsed because of the coronavirus, and oil prices plunged to their lowest level since 2002.
• In some corners of the market, oil prices are actually negative as storage runs out. 

Looking ahead…two things: 1) the Saudi government is reportedly calling for an emergency OPEC+ meeting and 2) Trump will meet with major oil execs at the White House today to discuss the challenges facing the industry.

HEALTHCARE

The Ask Is for Masks

Healthcare providers in the U.S. are facing a scarcity of medical supplies—especially N95 masks, which are essential to keeping workers and patients safe. 

• Many of those supplies are manufactured in China, where factories went offline for several weeks. 

So companies are helping out 

Home Depot said it has stopped selling N95 masks entirely and donated its stock to hospitals, first responders, and other healthcare providers. 

Amazon barred consumers from purchasing N95 masks, testing kits, and some other medical supplies on its site. It created a new site for hospitals and government agencies instead. 

Last but not least, when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker was scrambling for supplies, he tapped his friend Jonathan Kraft—son of Robert, president of the New England Patriots, chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital board, and Viceroy of Greater Bostonland. Kraft came through in spectacular fashion this week, importing 1.2 million masks from China in the Patriots' jet. 

These really are extraordinary times. Red Sox fan Kraft donated 300,000 masks to New York.

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RETAIL

Luckin Numbers Frothed With Fraud

We all bend the truth sometimes, from “I prefer my coffee black” to “I left your play because it was too moving.”

But yesterday, Luckin Coffee admitted to a real humdinger. The Chinese coffee chain said its COO and several other employees fabricated 2019 sales numbers. They’ve been suspended, and the company plans to bring legal action. 

• Luckin reported about $413 million in net revenue for the first nine months of 2019—but now says those numbers shouldn’t be trusted. 

The Luckin backstory: Luckin was once among the hottest startups, going public in 2019 less than two years after it was founded. 

• Luckin’s market cap was over $6 billion before yesterday, and the company hoped to overtake Starbucks in China by the end of 2020. 

The fishy numbers backstory: In January, Muddy Waters Research said it was shorting Luckin stock based on an anonymous report. Luckin said the report was false, and investors were mostly unmoved...until yesterday, when shares dropped more than 75%.

QUIZ

Quiz Majeure

Looking forward to Tiger King Halloween costumes and Tiger/Phil/Brady/Manning. It’s the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz.

1. To accommodate a new loan program from the $2.2 trillion relief package, the SBA will reportedly have three months to process more than 10 times the dollar amount it issued all of last year. What does SBA stand for?

2. Rank these recession trajectory shapes from most desirable to least: L, V, Nike swoosh. 

3. Fill in the blank: This week, ______ announced $100 million in grants and marketing for local news organizations.

4. The Cheesecake Factory, Mattress Firm, and Subway all said they wouldn't pay April rent because of COVID-19 location closures. Can you name the two-word term that’s legalese for “this event was so unpredictable we can't fulfill the obligations of the contract”? 

5. A Navy hospital ship, home to 1,000 beds and 1,200 medical staff, sailed into New York Harbor this week. What’s its name?

1. USS Disaster Relief 
2. The Intrepid 
3. USNS Comfort 
4. The Black Pearl

Click below to take the quiz online interactively. You're always a 5/5 in our hearts, no matter what your results page says.

Or, you can keep scrolling for the answers. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Tesla delivered about 88,000 vehicles in Q1, enough to send shares up as much as 19% after hours. 
• The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee has been delayed from July to August. 
• SoftBank pulled a $3 billion tender offer for WeWork stock. 
• President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act for ventilator manufacturing.
• Small business owners: Here's a Q&A on getting help from the government.

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FROM THE CREW

The videoconferencing company Zoom has become our collective virtual reality. In December 2019, the platform had a maximum of 10 million daily participants. Last month, it hit more than 200 million. 

That astonishing growth has come with serious concerns over privacy. In a blog post Wednesday, CEO Eric Yuan said he’s enacting a 90-day “feature freeze” to devote all engineering resources to privacy and security. 

We know a lot of Morning Brew readers are using Zoom for more than just work meetings. So, we tossed the question out on social media: How are you using Zoom in your social life? The responses are both heartwarming and hilarious. Read the list here.

CALENDAR

Your Daily Quarantine Planner: April 3

These recommendations from the Brew's Eliza Carter are excellent, but you don't have to click a single link to enjoy her writing. 

Morning workout

Get a free week or two of CorePower or Glo yoga. All of our third eyes could use some tending to—the first two are reading a lot of bad news. 

Work soundtrack 

If you 1) prefer downbeat work music and 2) miss 2018, I recommend revisiting two albums from that year: Mac Miller’s Swimming and Kacey Musgraves’s Golden Hour. 

 Lunch, but make it productive

Level up: Phase 1: Listen to the Philosophize This! podcast. Phase 2: Drop post-structuralist theory into conversation. Phase 3: Win heart of cute, brainy barista. 

Do good: Publishers Weekly has a list of books and authors affected by the coronavirus. Order a book, read it, and if you like it, tell the author. 

Stay up-to-date: Popular Information is an excellent newsletter by investigative journalist Judd Legum.

Things to send your group chat

We may be in a global pandemic, but quarantines can’t stop a fun mom from fun momming. This one did probably the only good April Fool’s prank ever.

Dinner plans 

Make shrimp and grits. It’s comfort food with vitamins tucked between the butter and cheese. Here’s a New York Times recipe and another without a paywall. 

• The secret: Put milk or cream (or your non-dairy alternative of choice) in the shrimp mixture. 

Evening activity

No screen: Finally teach your dog to shake hands. The American Kennel Club has a list of tips here but I suspect peanut butter is the only tip you need. 

Screen: Watch Mad Men's Season Two finale, “Meditations in an Emergency.” Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it will bring you to a moment when Americans really believed their world could be obliterated overnight. But we pulled through. 

FRIDAY PUZZLE

Think of a familiar four-word phrase that means "to be last." Together the first two words are a synonym for the last word. What phrase is it?

ANSWERS

Friday puzzle: "Bring up the rear." Via NPR

Quiz: 1. Small Business Administration 2. V, Nike Swoosh, L 3. Facebook 4. “force majeure” 5. USNS Comfort