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Good morning. We hope this email finds you well. Actually, we hope this email doesn't find you at all. We hope you've found yourself and this email is just a part of your story.
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NASDAQ
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14,174.14
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S&P 500
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4,255.15
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Dow
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34,393.75
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Bitcoin
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$39,935.58
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10-Year
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1.498%
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Oil
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$73.26
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*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET.
Here's what these numbers mean.
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Markets: Tech stocks propelled the Nasdaq to a record high. Oil prices briefly hit their highest level in more than two years yesterday, with investors anticipating higher demand and lower output for crude.
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Covid: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed the loosening of Covid-19 restrictions from June 21 to July 19 because of the spread of the new delta variant. But there's good news: New data from England and Scotland shows that vaccines offer significant protection against delta.
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The Ford F-150 frunk might be as good as it’s going to get for electric trucks this year.
Both the CEO and the CFO of Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicle startup, resigned yesterday. Their departures, combined with the company's admission last week that it was almost out of cash, sent the company's share price down 19% and plunged the automaker into crisis mode.
The backstory
After it bought a shuttered GM plant in Ohio in 2019, Lordstown and its futuristic trucks gave a jolt of optimism to the battered auto industry in the Midwest. Then-President Trump touted the company for creating manufacturing jobs, and Lordstown became an important talking point during the 2020 presidential campaign.
- Last year, Steve Burns, founder and now the former CEO, helped drive the company public via SPAC, one of many electric automakers to go public by merging with a blank-check company.
- Investors, eager to find the next Tesla, were wowed by Lordstown's impressive number of preorders and plans to start production on its electric truck, Endurance. Lordstown stock climbed more than 200% last summer.
But earlier this year the short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Lordstown of inflating its preorder numbers and massaging its production targets to look good for investors. A new report from a board committee confirmed some of those allegations.
Sound familiar?
A Hindenburg investigation also led to the departure of executive chairman Trevor Milton at Nikola, another electric truck startup that went public via SPAC. Plus, the SEC is looking into electric van startup Canoo, whose CEO also resigned in April.
What's going on? The electric vehicle industry is brutally competitive, and startups are hitting the highway before they have their learner's permit. Being a public company adds another layer of pressure they may not be ready for.
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If Reddit convinced you to invest in lumber last month...we have some bad news. Lumber futures posted their biggest weekly drop ever last week and continued to decline yesterday. Now at <$1,000 per thousand board feet, prices are down almost 41% since May's record high.
What's going on? Demand for homebuilding across North America strained supplies, sending prices skyrocketing. But sawmills have increased output (+5% over the last year, and another 5% increase is expected ahead), and now more buyers are balking at historically expensive wood.
- For context: Since the early '90s, lumber futures have mostly traded between $200 and $600.
Is higher-priced lumber the new normal?
Lumber market experts think so—at least in the mid-term. Strong demand will probably keep lumber prices above pre-pandemic levels for at least 1–2 years, according to BMO analyst Mark Wilde.
Big picture: Robbers have traded bank branches for lumberyards and construction sites. Even with the recent drop in prices, a plank of Douglas fir remains one of this market's hottest commodities.
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Giphy
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They simply don’t make deodorant for Dallas heat, but residents may get experimental this week after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid operator, asked Texans to conserve power until Friday night to keep the system from buckling.
Texas’s main power grid is dealing with more planned outages than normal, which is a problem because demand is skyrocketing. ERCOT estimated yesterday that electricity demand would exceed 73k megawatts, higher than the peak demand record for June set in 2018 at 69k.
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Woody Rickerson, ERCOT VP of grid planning and operations, said in a statement that he’s looking into why so many electricity generators are shut down. “This is unusual for this early in the summer season,” he said.
Zoom out: If ERCOT rings a bell, that’s because in February Texas’s power grid was hit with a winter storm that caused massive power outages and killed as many as 700 people. And while lawmakers have rushed to make changes to the current system, most of the weatherization updates won’t happen until 2022.
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Whilst we spent 2020 pondering alternative ways of saying unprecedented times, Amazon was taking unprecedented actions and boosted its US capital spending by 75% to $34 billion from the year earlier—which was more than twice that of any other company.
Which is why they just ranked as the number one company investing in the United States by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)—for the second year in a row.
From creating over 400,000 jobs to ensuring a starting wage of at least $15 and comprehensive benefits for employees, Amazon raised the bar for what corporate investment in the United States should look like.
You can check out the full PPI report and learn more about Amazon’s investments in their employees and communities right here.
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Getty Images
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Stat: When a state has so many songs written about it, you can't count it out. California has come roaring back from the pandemic, adding 1.3 million people to its payrolls since last April—more than Texas and New York and equivalent to the entire workforce of Nevada. Household income has increased nearly as much as Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania combined, per Bloomberg.
Quote: "The idea that inflation is transitory, to me...that one just doesn't work the way I see the world."
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC he'll be closely watching the Fed's announcement tomorrow to see if it'll acknowledge higher inflation. If the Fed maintains its view that higher prices are transitory, Tudor Jones said he'd "bet heavily on every inflation trade," such as commodities, crypto, and gold.
Read: A Q&A with neuroscientist David Eagleman about the evolution of the brain, the mystery of consciousness, and Elon Musk's Neuralink. (The Guardian)
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Vermont has lifted its remaining pandemic restrictions—weeks ahead of schedule—after blasting past a vaccination goal of 80% of the eligible population. Vermont is the first state to hit 80% and is considerably ahead of the national vaccination rate (61%).
How'd they'd do it?
Despite being home base to Ben & Jerry's and maple syrup, Vermont has always been one of the healthiest states. Its population is also quite liberal, white, and aging—demographics that are more open to vaccines, according to polls.
Polling also shows Vermonters held relatively more trust in state health authorities and their governor during the politicized pandemic. Vermont residents generally followed quarantine- and travel mandates, helping the state escape the severe early outbreaks that hit many of its Northeastern neighbors in Spring 2020.
Looking ahead...who's next to 80%? Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are close, but Hawaii is poised for silver with 79.7% as of Monday.
P.S.: Ben and Jerry, if you're reading, how about a commemorative flavor for your state's accomplishment? Some ideas:
- Matcha Green Immuni-tea
- Half Vaxxed
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dose
- Pfizer Food
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Novavax's vaccine is 90% effective, preliminary data shows, about on par with Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's shots.
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The average car in the US is now 12.1 years old, according to new IHS Markit data.
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Washington Prime Group, an owner of more than 100 malls across the US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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JPMorgan is sitting on $500 billion in cash in case inflation results in higher interest rates, CEO Jamie Dimon said yesterday.
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The Girl Scouts have a surplus of 15 million boxes of unsold cookies after the pandemic hampered the spring selling season. We can take them off your hands?
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Investing starts at home. Last year, Amazon doubled down on its investments in employees and communities by creating 400,000 jobs—all of which have a starting wage of at least $15/hour (twice the federal minimum wage) and comprehensive benefits. They also built out logistics and cloud infrastructure, expanded Tech Hubs and HQs, and opened advanced manufacturing sites—all right here in the US of A. Read more about why Amazon ranked #1 for US investment.
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Brew Mini: See if you can beat your score from last week with our Mini puzzle.
Tech Tip Tuesday: If you don't think markets are efficient, then why is there an app for finding a public bathroom?
Summer reading: Bill Gates has five ideas for your beach reads.
And summer listening: Brew cofounder Alex Lieberman explains how to build a community that aligns with your values in the latest episode of Founder's Journal.
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Monday was Flag Day here in the US. No doubt we’ve got a great-looking flag, but we are far from the only country with a red-white-blue color scheme. Can you identify the six countries below by their flags?
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1. Russia 2. Slovakia 3. Paraguay 4. France 5. Iceland 6. Australia
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