PHARMA

2 Down, 17 to Go

Are Monday mornings the new Friday afternoons? Yesterday, Moderna announced its vaccine was 94.5% effective in Phase 3 clinical trials, just one week after Pfizer bragged its vaccine was over 90% effective. 

The details: Moderna's month-long trial involved 30,000 volunteers split between placebo and vaccine groups. Of the 95 Covid-19 cases logged, only five occurred in the vaccine group, and all 11 severe cases were placebo recipients.

• Efficacy across groups—young people, the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities—was "really consistent," Dr. Anthony Fauci told STAT.  

What we don't know yet: How long the vaccine lasts, its impact on asymptomatic carriers and infectiousness, potential long-term side effects, and whether 95% efficacy can convince skeptics to get the double dose. Still, Moderna's and Pfizer's results are leaps and bounds better than what health experts dared to dream of a few months ago. 

Plus, Moderna's vaccine can hold for a month at a normal refrigerator freezer's temp, making it much easier to transport than Pfizer's, which requires -94°F.

Markets partied like it was February 2020 

Get your Dow 30k gear ready, because the blue-chip index hit a record 29,964 points, while the S&P rose nearly 1.2% to notch its own record close.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap companies, jumped 2.4%, building on top of last week's first record close in over two years. That rally comes despite rising U.S. cases and new restrictions, which could disproportionately hurt small-cap profits this quarter, the WSJ reports. 

Other stock market winners from yesterday: 

• Moderna, obviously. The U.S. biotech rose 9.6%.
• "NYC is not dead" stocks, like lenders and commercial real estate.
• Pandemic-stricken sectors like travel and leisure. Cruise operator Carnival rose nearly 10%, and the JETS airline exchange-traded fund rose 3.8%.

Looking ahead...we could see more vaccine rallies soon. Pfizer and Moderna are still collecting data on lingering side effects for the FDA, but they could file for emergency use authorization within a few weeks. 

AUTO

Elon’s Early Christmas Present

Yesterday, S&P Global announced that Tesla will join the S&P 500 come Monday, Dec. 21. With a $386.8 billion market cap as of Monday evening, Tesla would already be among the index’s top 10 most valuable companies (and its stock shot up more than 13% after hours). 

The automaker was technically eligible as early as September, but the Index Committee who makes the call passed it over. They’ll announce what company Tesla is booting off at a later date. Who’s your money on? 

IPO

Airbnb Finds a New Home

Coming to a Robinhood home screen near you: ticker ABNB. Yesterday, home rental company Airbnb released its long-awaited IPO filing.

• If it signs the Nasdaq guestbook in December (that's the goal), Airbnb could become the third-largest IPO of the year after Snowflake and investor Bill Ackman's blank-check company.

The backstory: Airbnb was down 28–3 following the pandemic's first wave in March and April. In May, the company laid off about a quarter of its workforce as revenue dropped 72% in Q2. 

But Airbnb mounted a furious comeback, mostly thanks to an unexpected number of people renting properties in rural areas in the U.S. It even turned a profit last quarter on $1.3 billion in revenue.

Zoom out: Everyone has an opinion on the future of travel and what it might mean for Airbnb and other hospitality companies. Expedia CEO Peter Kern, for one, gave a bullish take to Bloomberg recently: "Rome has been through a plague or two." 

+ If you've got some time on your hands...read Airbnb's S-1 filing for all the details.

SPONSORED BY COMPARE CREDIT

The Gift That Gives Back

They say it’s better to give than to receive... 

But when you discover a credit card that lets you give and receive this holiday season, you throw that proverb out the proverbial window.

Not only do these cards get you 0% intro APR until 2022 on new purchases, you can easily earn $200 bonus cash or up to 5% cash back at places like Amazon.com, Target.com, and more.

That means you can get gifts for everyone this holiday season—and we mean e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. 

People like:

• Your astrologist
• Your second cousin (twice removed)
• Your boss
• Your favorite newsletter writers
• And...YOURSELF!!!

The list goes on—as it should, because you’ve got the only card you need to make everyone but your boss happy this holiday season.

Now, get gifting already.

PUBLISHING

The Book Industry: Thanks, Obama

Barack Obama's latest memoir, A Promised Land, goes on sale today. It's the first of two volumes in which the former president looks back on his years leading the country.

The release comes at a rough time for booksellers. The pandemic disrupted supply chains, halted live events like book signings, and forced many IRL shops to move sales completely online. 

• The famous Strand bookstore in NYC said sales dropped 70% from last year. 

It hasn't been universally bad. With more drama at the White House than in Westeros, Trump-focused titles like Bob Woodward's Rage and Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough topped nonfiction bestseller lists in what's on track to become a record year for politics books.

A Promised Land should juice the trend. Obama's publisher, Crown, is printing 3.4 million copies in the U.S. and Canada and 2.5 million overseas, reports the NYT. 

The big question: Will Barack top his wife Michelle's 2018 memoir, Becoming, which has sold 14+ million copies globally? We hear there's a steak dinner on the line.

REGULATION

Jay Clayton Joins Will Muschamp in Leaving the SEC

In your not-so-exciting-but-still-important news of the day, Jay Clayton is stepping down as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after three and a half years in charge of the financial regulatory agency. 

Clayton's highlight reel

His flashiest moments include suing Elon Musk in 2018 after Musk proclaimed, via Twitter, that he was going to take Tesla private, as well as accusing former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes of fraud.

And while progressives criticized the Trump appointee for being too chummy with Wall Street, Clayton did pursue 3,152 financial enforcement cases, more than his Obama-era predecessor, and awarded a record $175 million to 39 individual whistleblowers over the past fiscal year.

Who's taking his place? Hester Pierce, an "ultra-conservative ranking Republican commissioner," will likely take over as interim chairwoman until Biden takes office, according to Reuters. 

Looking ahead...top candidates for the role under Biden will probably resemble Miss Trunchbull more than Ned Schneebly when it comes to Wall Street oversight.

SPORTS

Ted Lasso's Got Company

Blake Lively's husband and notable Canadian, Ryan Reynolds, has teamed up with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator Rob McElhenney to buy the Welsh soccer team Wrexham AFC.

• We swear it's not a joke: The celeb duo acquired the team for $2.5 million after an overwhelming vote of approval by the club's board. 

Get to know Wrexham 

Although currently languishing in the fifth tier of English professional soccer, Wrexham has a rich history. Its stadium is recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest in the world, and the team famously beat Arsenal in the 1992 FA Cup. 

Fans are pumped. Chris Jones, a member of Wrexham's supporters' trust, told the AP, "This is the absolute dream. We've always said we needed people who have hundreds of millions to come and buy the club." 

Bottom line: If two actors buying a historic-but-downtrodden club to return it to its former glory sounds like it's straight out of Hollywood, you'd be correct. Reynolds and McElhenney plan to produce a behind-the-scenes TV series documenting their experience owning the club.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Record exec Scooter Braun sold the master rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums to private equity firm Shamrock Capital for a reported $300+ million. 
• Universal and Cinemark agreed to significantly shorten the "theatrical window" to just 31 days.
• Home Depot is buying HD Supply, a building products distributor and its former subsidiary, in a deal worth $8.7 billion. 
• Tech CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey will face lawmakers today who are angry the companies slowed the spread of a disputed NY Post article about Hunter Biden.
• Jeff Bezos named the first 16 grant recipients of his $10 billion Earth Fund.
• Bird, the e-scooter startup, is reportedly considering going public via SPAC. 

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BREW'S BETS

Tech Tip Tuesday: Match the color of any image using this uploader, and resize/crop GIFs here.

Shaking things up: Actually, don't with this product. Pepsi redesigned its 2-liter bottle after 30 years, and...well, see for yourself.

The final marketing jobs guide is here: Get the inside scoop on how to land a marketing position at a publisher, courtesy of Marketing Brew and industry experts.

Cool conference: The NYT's DealBook summit is a marathon of live interviews with top global CEOs and other A-listers. This year, it's virtual, free, and definitely worth checking out. 

GAMES

What's Trending

Welcome back to an annual Morning Brew tradition. Every year around this time we show you this chart from Google Trends and ask: What's the search term displayed here? 

Google Trends

ANSWER

Friendsgiving. If you got it wrong...there's always next year.