DATING

Slow and Steady Wins the Date

Yesterday, Tinder announced some of the biggest changes since its 2012 launch to adapt to a pandemic-altered dating landscape. Some new features...

• Videos: Tinder is letting users attach up to nine short videos to their profiles.
• Hot Takes: Users can discuss their spiciest opinions before matching, available 6pm to midnight on weekdays.
• Explore: A mode that lets you scan the virtual room before going in and striking up a conversation. 

If this all sounds like Tinder attempting to become the next TikTok, you’d be half-right. Gen Z accounts for over 50% of Tinder’s user base, and adding videos and opportunities to display an “authentic” self is intended to attract more young adults to the app. 

But CEO Jim Lanzone stressed that the company isn’t trying to become a social media platform for friends. The end goal is still to foster romantic relationships, but with pandemic-era tweaks.

Users coming out of Covid “just want to slow things down and get to know people first a lot more before they decide to match, let alone before they decide to go meet someone offline,” Lanzone told the BBC.

Some dating apps are taking a different approach

Bumble, an app known for requiring women to make the first move, is doubling down on its “Bumble BFF” feature to help nurture IRL friendships. Bumble BFF accounted for 9% of the app’s monthly active users in September 2020, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Reuters.

And Match Group, which owns Tinder, recently acquired a South Korean company, Hyperconnect, that promotes conversations across borders and languages.

Bottom line: With lockdowns mostly over, people are turning to dating apps to find new friends, benefits included or not.

COVID

Don’t Pull Out the Sparklers Just Yet...

Yesterday, the Biden administration acknowledged that it’ll come up just short of reaching its goal of partially vaccinating 70% of US adults by July 4. If the current pace of vaccinations continues, 67% of adults will have at least one shot of a Covid vaccine by the time the fireworks start, according to the NYT.

People around Biden say, “Ehhh, close enough,” as they talk up the big rebound in the economy, which is projected by the Fed to grow 7% this year. But the miss reflects significant vaccine hesitancy in the US and the waning power of financial incentives to get people off their couch and into Walgreens. 

And a major threat looms

Covid’s hottest variant is delta, a more transmissible strain spreading around the globe that Dr. Fauci called the “greatest threat” to eliminating the pandemic in the US. Vaccines have been shown to protect against delta, but experts are warning of surges in regions with lower vaccination rates—like the South—this fall and winter.

Bottom line: Health officials are painting a portrait of “two Americas,” one in regions with high immunization rates and the other where they lag.

REAL ESTATE

Now Renting: Natural Blackstone Exterior

Blackstone is getting back into the rough-and-tumble business of arguing about where to hang the photos. The investment firm is spending $6 billion to acquire Home Partners of America, a rental company with 17k+ properties that gives tenants the opportunity to eventually buy their house.

Getting back into? After the 2008 crash, Wall Street firms like Blackstone scooped up foreclosed homes on the cheap. Their investments are credited with helping to stabilize local housing markets and prop up prices.

• Blackstone bought tens of thousands of units and rented them out through Invitation Homes, now the US’ largest single-family home renter. 

But without a crystal ball to predict the pandemic-induced scramble for housing, Blackstone sold Invitation Homes in 2019. Now, the firm (and others) want back in on the soaring housing market, where last month median home prices rose almost 24% annually to break $350k. 

Big picture: Institutional investors only account for an estimated 2% of single-family rentals. But all-cash offers from Wall Street suits are frustrating some would-be homebuyers who are already up against short supplies, record-high prices, and intense competition. 

SPONSORED BY FIDELITY

Decisions Are Like Cheesecake

They can be hard to make. Go hiking or hang out on your couch all weekend? Make some easy brownies or try to make a cheesecake? Buy or sell a stock? 

Decision Tech^TM from Fidelity can’t solve every quandary in your life, but it can help a whole lot with making smarter trading decisions. You’ll get heads-up alerts on market events that could affect your portfolio, like when your roommate texts you that her friends are coming over and might eat all your cheesecake. 

You’ll also get in-the-moment trading insights, as well as $0 commissions for online U.S. stock and ETF trades.¹ And, they’re committed to getting you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year.*

You might have to look elsewhere for tips on cheesecake, but when it comes to making better trading decisions, turn to Fidelity.

Learn more about Decision TechTM here.

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: 5.2 million people around the globe became dollar millionaires last year despite the pandemic, according to a new report from Credit Suisse. 90% of millionaires currently have a net worth of $5 million or less, while 0.4% are worth $50 million or more. 

Quote: “Very, very unlikely.”

In testimony before Congress, Fed Chair Jerome Powell dismissed the idea that the economy could experience 1970s-esque hyperinflation.

Read: The rise of the $10 million disc golf celebrity. (The Ringer)

TRAVEL

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Flights

Sure, flight attendants might be trained in handling a drunk bachelorette party or two. But abusive passengers have become so common on flights that on Monday airline groups pleaded with the Justice Department to prosecute the worst cases.

Since the beginning of the year, the FAA has received 3,000 reports of unruly passengers—2,300 of whom were people who refused to follow mask requirements.

• “It’s out of control. It’s really coming to the point where we have to defend ourselves,” Paul Hartshorn, spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told CNBC.
• In one instance, a passenger was fined $52k for hitting a crew member in the face and trying to open the cockpit door.

No one’s 100% sure why people increasingly want to fight someone who hands out Biscoffs, but experts point to entitlement, anxieties from the pandemic, and politicized mask-wearing for the unruly behavior. 

Big picture: In general, airlines are struggling to accommodate the rebound in demand. American is cutting 1% of July flights and Delta announced plans to hire 1,000 more pilots by next summer.

While we’re here...Someone needs to take away the FAA’s photoshop.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• GameStop stock jumped after the company raised more than $1 billion in a share sale.
• McDonald’s will introduce its first-ever loyalty program nationwide on July 8.
• Warby Parker has confidentially filed for an IPO.
• Nursing home deaths among Medicare patients rose 32% last year, according to a new government report. 
• Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize recreational marijuana. 

BREW'S BETS

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Finally, a cure for hiccups? This L-shaped straw stopped hiccups in almost 92% of cases, according to a new study. Stop holding your breath and check it out.

Your columella nasi is looking especially shiny today! Not sure what that means? Check out this list of the names of things you probably didn’t know. (Btw, it means the space between your nostrils.) 

Behind the scenes at the Brew: We’re looking for passionate readers who want an inside scoop on what we’re brewing next. Want to beta test never-before-seen features? Sign up here.

FROM THE CREW

Talkin' Tech

Tech enthusiasts—or even cool dads and moms who have a kid working at Google—you need to make Emerging Tech Brew part of your weekly routine. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, our reporters tackle tech topics like drone delivery, virtual reality, electric/driverless/flying cars, and even Twitter. It’s like talking to your most in-the-know friend, without having to hear about their tattoos all the time. Subscribe to Emerging Tech Brew here.

GAMES

The Puzzle Section

Word search: We can guarantee this is the cutest word search you’ll ever do. 

Trivia: With the arrival of Luca, it is once again time to test your knowledge of Pixar. Two Pixar movies consistently come in last on lists ranking Pixar films, such as Rotten Tomatoes. Which two movies are they? 

ANSWER

Cars 2 and Cars 3

✢ A Note From Fidelity

Investing includes risk, including risk of loss. 

¹$0.00 commission applies to online U.S. equity trades and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in a Fidelity retail account only for Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC retail clients. Sell orders are subject to an activity assessment fee (from $0.01 to $0.03 per $1,000 of principal). Other exclusions and conditions may apply. See Fidelity.com/commissions for details. Employee equity compensation transactions and accounts managed by advisors or intermediaries through Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions® are subject to different commission schedules.

* Based on aggregate savings on all Fidelity equity, options & ETF orders in FY 2020. Data sourced from all marketable SEC Rule 605 equity/ETF orders (100-9999 shares) and marketable option orders (1-100 contracts) executed in 2020. Source: IHS Markit.

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917