MARKETS

SHIPPING

It Moved

The most interesting thing to happen to all of our lives since Bernie Sanders tried to keep himself warm at the presidential inauguration could be close to resolution. 

The Ever Given, a mind-bogglingly huge container ship that’s been blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week, holding up an estimated $9.6 billion in goods a day, is way less stuck than it used to be. As of 4am ET this morning, workers were able to partially refloat the ship, and the stern (the back of the boat) was 300 feet clear of the shore. 

Word of the weekend: dredging

The process of re-floating a container ship 4x heavier than the Sydney Harbour Bridge is just as complex as you’d imagine, and requires lots of dredging—the process of removing sediment from water bodies to keep them navigable. Over the weekend, dredgers at the Suez Canal dug 18 meters down and shifted 27,000 cubic meters of sand in the hopes of getting the Ever Given floating again. 

But the real hero of this tale? The moon. Rising waters due to high tide made all the dredging work pay off, allowing tugboats to more easily pull the Ever Given from its beached position overnight.

Clearing the passage can’t happen fast enough

At least 367 ships are stuck in traffic at the canal, carrying precious cargo including oil, liquefied natural gas, sneakers, toys, livestock, toilet paper, cars, and TVs. Around 90% of global retail trade is carried on container ships, and the Suez Canal, which provides a shortcut between Asia and Europe, is critical for the flow of goods around the world.

But that hasn’t stopped everyone from having a little fun at the ship’s expense—okay, a lot of fun. You can watch traffic reports. You can move it anywhere in the world. You can get deep about it. You can make Passover jokes.

Bottom line: If the Ever Given can fully break free today and allow traffic to pass, the shipping industry can avoid the worst scarring, according to the NYT. 

FINANCE

A Wall Street Whodunit

In Saturday’s Brew, we noted that shares in Discovery and ViacomCBS had plunged on Friday following analyst downgrades. By the end of the trading day, ViacomCBS had lost half of its value in a week.

Turns out there’s a lot more intrigue to this story.

The stocks of those two companies and several US-listed Chinese tech firms, including Tencent Music and Baidu, were involved in massive “block trades” together worth almost $19 billion.

• A block trade is when huge amounts of shares trade hands, typically through negotiation outside of the open market to keep stock prices stable. They’re not uncommon among big investors on Wall Street, but Friday’s action was “unprecedented,” a portfolio manager told Bloomberg.

In 2021, you don’t just toss out the “U” word unless something really fishy is going on, which is why many analysts speculated that the trades indicated an investment shop was in trouble and needed to liquidate.

That turned out to be correct: CNBC reported that the selling pressure was tied to positions of Archegos Capital Management, the multibillion-dollar family office of Bill Hwang, a former trader at hedge fund Tiger Management. Basically, what allegedly happened is that Archegos's lenders forced it to sell more than $20 billion worth of shares on Friday. 

Looking ahead...banks Nomura and Credit Suisse have warned of potentially "significant" losses due to transactions with an unspecified client (wonder who that could be). This morning, “Global traders are bracing for what’s shaping up to be one of the most anticipated opens for US equities in months,” writes Bloomberg.

MUSIC

For Those Who Just Rocked, We Salute You

Wanna escape Spain’s restrictions limiting most gatherings to four people? Go to a rock concert. 

On Saturday night, the Spanish band Love of Lesbian performed for 5,000 people at Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi concert hall.

The concert was a government-sanctioned test to determine whether events in controlled settings could restart again without contributing to the spread of the coronavirus. Concert-goers took a rapid Covid test earlier in the day, and the result showed up on their phones 10–15 minutes later. High-quality masks were required but social distancing and accurately knowing song lyrics were not. 

It was pretty emotional for the performers, whose industry has been first-to-close, last-to-open during the pandemic. “It’s been a year and half since we last set foot on a stage as a band...some of the musicians are crying over here,” said lead singer Santi Balmes.

Zoom out: Organizers said it was the biggest commercial event held in Europe since the pandemic began. 

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Staying Hydrated Shouldn’t Be a Chore

Water. Sometimes it feels like you can’t live with it, and ya can’t live without it. Ok, maybe you just can’t live without it, but getting in those eight glasses a day can be a drag.

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Start sipping Hint today.

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: A national index tracking demand for office space gained 29% last month, led by growth in Seattle, New York City, and Washington, DC. Overall demand is now at 38% below pre-pandemic levels.

Quote: "I look at it this way. The first time we have an excuse. There were about a hundred thousand deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially."

Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator under President Trump, opened up about the administration's failures to contain Covid-19 in a CNN documentary that aired last night.

Read: An excellent discussion on genomic sequencing. (NYT Magazine)

CALENDAR

The Week Ahead

All eyes on Minneapolis: The trial for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd, begins today.

Jobs report: The Labor Department will drop employment numbers for March this Friday. Economists project 565,000 jobs were added to the economy, continuing an upward trend.

Infrastructure: Is Infrastructure Week finally here? Biden will lay out the first part of his multi-trillion dollar plan for federal investments in physical infrastructure on Wednesday.

Sports: The men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments roll on this week, and MLB’s Opening Day is Thursday.

Curtains: On Wednesday, Godzilla vs. Kong is hitting HBO Max and theaters simultaneously after a dominant start internationally. A WeWork documentary comes to Hulu on Friday. 

Everything else:

• Happy Holi!
• The US stock market will be closed for Good Friday.
• Don’t believe anything anyone says to you on Thursday.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Police and soldiers in Myanmar killed more than 100 people on Saturday in the deadliest day of protests since a military coup in early February.
• Boeing has resumed deliveries of its 787 plane after hitting pause for five months.
• San Diego Comic-Con’s decision to hold its convention over Thanksgiving weekend is not making it any friends.
• Today is the last day for employees at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama to submit ballots on whether to unionize.

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Social sells: Brands on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are all competing for your wallet—but which platform will rule the mobile mall? Find out at Retail Brew's upcoming virtual event on the future of social commerce. RSVP here.

Dive back into the week:

• Shallow dive: SNL took on NFTs.
• Medium dive: the Depths of Wikipedia Instagram account.
• Deep dive: Ikea published a free cookbook to help you use all your scraps.
• Cannonball: People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves.

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GAMES

Fill In the Map

Today’s trivia question comes courtesy of a viral tweet from user @outstndnbrandon. 

The question: Someone puts a blank map of the US in front of you. You have a chance to win up to $50 million: $1 million for every state you can correctly identify. 

The catch: If you get one wrong, you get nothing, but you can leave blanks. 

How much money are you making?

NATURE

Before You Go...

Nothing beats the cherry blossoms in DC every spring.