POLITICS

Economic Team, Assemble!

Yesterday, President-elect Joe Biden announced the top captains of his economic team. Let's hop right in. 

The Treasury oversees money production, raises revenue (i.e., taxes), and ensures the economic gears of the country are greased and turning. 

• Confirming recent reports, former Fed Chair Janet Yellen was nominated to become the first woman to head the Treasury. Here's a refresher on what her nomination means. And consider following her on Twitter (she's new to the platform and could use some more followers).
• Yellen's proposed No. 2 is Adewale "Wally" Adeyemo, president of the Obama Foundation and former economic adviser to 44. He'd be the first Black man to serve as deputy secretary. 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for drafting the annual budget proposal and approving new regulations.

• Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden was nominated as director. She'd be the first woman of color to head the OMB, but of all Biden's early nominees, she may face the toughest confirmation battle. 

Council of Economic Advisors: Think of it as the president's personal econ think tank, responsible for crafting policy and economic forecasting. 

• Cecilia Rouse, dean of Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, was nominated as chair. She served on the council under Obama and would become the CEA's first Black chair.

Big picture: Other economy-related roles Biden needs to fill include secretaries of Commerce, Labor, and Transportation and the U.S. trade representative. All nominees will require Senate confirmation (though control of the Senate is in flux until Georgia's runoff races in January). 

Reading between the noms

Biden's roster features prominent labor economists and inequality experts, which could signal an early focus on spreading the wealth, protecting workers, and ensuring an equitable pandemic recovery, the NYT reports.  

• To get that done, this squad is expected to embrace more deficit spending.

Looking ahead…with a slowing recovery, worsening pandemic, and one month until ~12 million U.S. workers lose federal unemployment benefits, Biden's team will face the economic equivalent of Alabama in Week 1. 

MARKETS

Investors Heading Into December

November 2020—when stocks only went up. 

Stocks: Global equities had their best month since 1988 thanks to 1) promising news that a coronavirus vaccine would get approved before the end of the year and 2) society not collapsing following the presidential election (though President Trump has still not conceded almost one month after Election Day). 

• Small-cap stocks, Wall Street lingo for smaller companies that are publicly traded, had their best month ever—up 19%. 
• It's not totally surprising. Small-caps are often the first to signal an economic recovery, per Reuters. 

Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, hit an all-time high yesterday, summiting the peak it set about three years ago. Analysts point to greater commitments from big finance players—like PayPal and Square—for driving last month's 40% rally. 

Non-cryptocurrency: The dollar had its worst month since July, which is a sign investors stayed away from the safe haven asset and piled into riskier bets. 

Commodities: Gold, also considered a safe haven for investors, had its worst month since 2016. 

AUTO

GM to Nikola: Nvm

Shares of Nikola fell nearly 27% yesterday after GM announced it was pulling out of a deal to take an 11% equity stake in the electric truck company. 

The backstory: GM gave Nikola a stamp of approval in early September with a $2 billion investment to co-develop Nikola's all-electric Badger pickup trucks. It stood by that agreement even as a short seller alleged that Nikola and former CEO Trevor Milton were misleading investors and committing an "intricate fraud." 

The nowstory: GM and Nikola are entering into a non-binding "potential agreement" that scraps the equity stake and Badger trucks. It does leave GM the option to supply fuel-cells for Nikola's commercial semi-trucks...if it feels like it. 

Bottom line: The new arrangement gives GM some breathing room should Nikola fully crash and burn, but it doesn't fully sever its relationship with a one-time EV darling. 

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TECH

Facebook's Got a New Kustomer

Yesterday, Facebook agreed to buy customer-service platform Kustomer for a reported $1+ billion, per the WSJ.

What it does, aside from confusing autocorrect: Kustomer condenses customer outreach across text, email, chatbot, and social apps into a single screen, allowing businesses to build a clearer portrait of who's eyeing their goods. 

• Those kapabilities are especially important now that the pandemic has pushed more shoppers to e-commerce. 

Why Facebook wants in: Kustomer rounds out a growing suite of services Facebook offers to the millions of businesses that use its platforms. Over 175 million people chat up businesses on WhatsApp each day. 

• And Facebook has made its platforms more shopper-friendly in recent months, such as adding payment and hosting services to WhatsApp and a shopping tab to Instagram. 

Zoom out: The deal is subject to regulatory approval. Worth noting, Facebook’s relationship with regulators is worse than our relationship with turkey leftovers five days in. The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general are soon expected to announce plans to sue Facebook over its alleged habit of...buying promising startups and squashing competition. 

RETAIL

Under Armour Applies a Curry Brand-Aid

Yesterday, beleaguered sportswear company Under Armour and NBA superstar Steph Curry announced the launch of Curry Brand, a signature line of clothing, shoes, and other golf and basketball products.

It's all about the youths

According to a Piper Sandler survey, Under Armour is No. 1 on the list of brands "no longer worn" by male teens. Translation: It's just not cool anymore. So Under Armour is taking a page out of Nike-Jordan Brand's playbook to try and turn things around with younger consumers. 

• It'll be a challenge: Under Armour's stock is down almost 23% this year and sales were essentially flat year-over-year in Q3. Its e-comm biz did grow over 50% last quarter but, during the pandemic, so did any business with a functioning website. 

Zoom out: Even with Steph's marketing chops, Curry Brand alone probably won't be able to right Under Armour's ship. Nike's powerful Jordan Brand accounts for just ~9% of the company's overall revenue.  

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Moderna applied for emergency use authorization from the FDA for its Covid-19 vaccine. 
• Exxon Mobil will write down the value of its natural gas properties by up to $20 billion and give spending a major haircut next year.
• Salesforce will announce a deal to buy Slack today after market close, per CNBC. 
• DeepMind, the British AI group owned by Alphabet, cracked a 50-year scientific problem related to "protein folding." It's being called a breakthrough moment for the field.
• Sunday was the busiest day at U.S. airports since the pandemic began—nearly 1.2 million passengers passed through TSA checkpoints.
• Wednesday afternoon football? Don't tell your boss. The Steelers-Ravens game, originally slated for Thanksgiving, has been moved to 3:40pm ET on Wednesday due to the Ravens' Covid outbreak. The game has been postponed three times. 

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GAMES

Don't Google This Map

What does this map depict? 

u/demivus on Reddit

ANSWER

Source of the most residents born out-of-state (circa 2017). 

Via Reddit.