AUTO

Musk Wants to Ditch Tacos for Brisket

The debate over reopening the economy has reached Act II, with none other than Elon Musk as the lead character.

On Saturday, Musk's Tesla sued California’s Alameda County for prohibiting the automaker from restarting manufacturing operations at its plant in Fremont. Tesla had been preparing to get the assembly lines running again Friday, but the county said the company “must not reopen” due to local restrictions on nonessential businesses.  

Telling Elon Musk he can’t go to work is like telling Miguel he can’t play guitar. On Twitter earlier Saturday, Musk called the county’s order the “final straw.” He threatened to move Tesla’s HQ "and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately,” while the status of its Fremont plant will depend "on how Tesla is treated in the future.” 

That opened a can of worms

One California politician attacked Musk with language not fit for a PG-13 newsletter, but others defended his calls to restart production. Fremont Mayor Lily Mei said she was “growing concerned about the potential implications for our regional economy” under lockdown orders, and assured Musk the city is “prepared to support Tesla as soon as they are able to resume automobile manufacturing operations.” Translation: This is not my call; please don’t go anywhere.

• Down in Austin, lawmakers were putting the Shiner Bock on ice. Sen. Ted Cruz retweeted Musk, saying “We would welcome Tesla HQ in Texas...We make lots of cars & trucks in Texas, and we’d love more!!”  

Big picture: Tesla’s Fremont, CA, factory is considered the crown jewel of its global manufacturing operations. It employs more than 10,000 people and is the only U.S. facility producing the Model S, Y, and 3. 

The even bigger picture

The Tesla episode highlights the growing tensions between those who think businesses can reopen safely (Tesla said its restart plan followed months of “careful planning and preparation”), and officials who argue a hasty easing of restrictions will reverse progress in reducing the spread of the virus.

MARKETS

What’s Up With the Stock Market?

Two things happened on Friday:

1. The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% and data showed 20.5 million jobs were lost in April.
2. The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq all rose more than 1.5%. The Nasdaq even turned positive for the year.

So...what’s up with the stock market? Here are a few theories:

An effective government response. Early action by the Fed to provide liquidity prevented a financial crisis in the corporate sector. Meanwhile, Congress sent checks to the majority of working Americans and provided $670 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses. Many experts think more relief is needed, but obviously investors are satisfied, so far. 

The stock market = lots of Big Tech. Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook account for more than 20% of the S&P’s total value. As we noted, those firms are likely to emerge from the crisis relatively unscathed. 

Corporate earnings for the last quarter weren’t as bad as feared.

Finally, investors could be wrong, and we’ll look at this story in a month and shake our heads.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Coronavirus Conspiracy Theorists’ Weapons of Choice

Are YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon—Dr. Peter Hotez’s words, not ours. Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, was responding to a video that went viral last week, in which discredited scientist Dr. Judy Mikovits made false claims about the coronavirus. 

• In the video, an extended trailer for a film called Plandemic, Mikovits spreads dangerous health misinformation and claims that figures such as Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed pandemic messaging to grab power.  

The video racked up 1.8 million views, 17,000 comments, and almost 150,000 shares on Facebook before it was removed on Thursday. YouTube also removed the video, but Twitter did not—instead marking some links as "unsafe."

• Mikovits’s book, Plague of Corruption, leapt to the top of Amazon’s print bestseller list last week. Amazon says the book does not violate its content policies.

We really hope we don’t have to say this, but...the only thing Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates are conspiring on is how to pull off the bespectacled turtle look.

SPONSORED BY ELECTRIC

Scream Your Last, "Hey Bob, the Wifi's Out"

If your company has between 20 and 2,000 employees, and you can make decisions about IT, Electric wants to upgrade your home wifi for free.

Electric has a simple proposition for you: Take a short meeting with them about your company’s IT, and they’ll upgrade your home wifi with a blazing-fast Eero pro router—for free.

Electric is an elite squadron of IT experts who will protect your company from security threats, enable work from home at half the cost, and manage your company’s hardware and software (including the newfound necessity for premium video conferencing tech).

They’re the first IT solution for businesses of all sizes that’s fully secure, real-time, and dependable. And they give away free wifi routers! What’s not to love?!

Schedule your meeting with Electric .

ENTERTAINMENT

Pandemic No Match for Cotton Candy

Let’s be honest: We’re all a bit more frazzled than usual...which may be why many people are seizing opportunities to blow off steam on a 1,000-foot ship or at a Disney park. 

Shanghai Disneyland reopened today after closing in late January. There will be major adjustments—guests have to wear masks at all times except when eating, social distancing will be enforced in lines, restaurants, and rides, and some typically crowded experiences will remain closed. 

• But...it’s not staring at your wall, and it’ll be open, so people are clamoring for tickets. As of this weekend, the first two days were already sold out. 
• This is a crucial test for Disney, which last quarter lost $1 billion due to COVID-19 in its highly profitable parks segment. 

Cruises are in high demand, too. In the three days following Carnival's announcement that it'll resume some trips in August, a booking company told TMZ it saw a 600% increase in volume compared to the three days before the announcement. That's also a 200% increase over the same period last year. 

TRENDS

Two Biz Stats That Make You Go…“Huh. Makes Sense.”

15–25%: The increase in the weight of residential waste since lockdown orders went into effect, Waste Management’s CFO told the WSJ. Conversely, commercial and industrial waste weight dropped 16%. 

1.8 million: The number of pay-TV subscribers lost in Q1, the sector's worst quarter on record, per MoffettNathanson. Why more cord-cutting than usual? A) no live sports and b) commercial customers like bars and hotels have paused service. 

CALENDAR

The Week Ahead

Today marks two months, or 1/6 of a year, since Morning Brew has been working from home. What's one more? 

Monday: Earnings (Under Armour, Marriott) 

Tuesday: CPI inflation data; International Nurses Day; earnings (Toyota, Allianz, Casper) 

Wednesday: Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech; earnings (Tencent, Cisco, Sony); happy 70th, Stevie Wonder 

Thursday: Jobless claims; earnings (Brookfield Asset Management, Aurora Cannabis)

Friday: Retail sales for April; earnings (JD.com, DraftKings, VF Corp)

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• UFC 249, the first U.S. major sporting event since lockdowns started, took place without fans Saturday night. 
• Seoul, South Korea, closed 2,100+ bars and nightclubs following a new cluster of coronavirus cases. 
• The owner of Emirates, the biggest airline in the Middle East, posted a 28% drop in profit in the last fiscal year. It said it will raise debt to see it through the crisis. 
• The FDA approved its first coronavirus antigen test for emergency use. 
• Pics from countries easing lockdowns around the world.

BREW'S BETS

Our long lashes steal the show every conference call. How do we do it? This lash extensions mascara with more than 7,000 five-star reviews helps us gussy up our lids right at home. .*

Looking around your house realizing all the chores you’ve put off...like installing home security? SimpliSafe makes it ridiculously simple: Order their system online, get it delivered to your door, and peel and stick the sensors where you want them—no installation team needed. Protect your home and get a free security camera.*

Diners, Drive-ins, and Good Deeds: Guy Fieri has raised more than $20 million for restaurant workers in a partnership with the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. You can .

Don’t call ’em life hacks...but these are some pretty cool, if random, skills to have: quick way to fold clothes, homemade Cookie Crisp, instant ice, and anything on this guy’s YouTube channel.

^{*This is sponsored advertising content}

FROM THE CREW

One of the bright spots during quarantine has been communal Sunday night viewings of ESPN/Netflix's Michael Jordan doc, The Last Dance. ESPN is even pushing up the release dates of other documentaries to feed sports-starved Americans. 

Here's a great thought starter, per our friends at Awful Announcing:

What other athletes/teams/sports events deserve a mega-documentary series like The Last Dance?

Share your answer.

CROSSWORD

Masked Men

Sample clue: Italian beer brand (six letters).

Play the crossword to find out what it is.