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Good morning. Start reaching out to your friends with pools now because a "heat dome" is going to hit the US next week. Most of the country will see highs of about 10–15 degrees above average, so if there’s a plus side, at least we’ll all be miserable together.
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Nasdaq
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14,836.99
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S&P
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4,411.79
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Dow
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35,061.55
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Bitcoin
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$32,642.23
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10-Year
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1.276%
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Facebook
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$369.79
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*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET.
Here's what these numbers mean.
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Markets: Delta who? The major US stock indexes closed the week at record highs despite rising Covid-19 case numbers in all 50 states. The Dow closed above 35,000 for the first time, and, as you’ll read about in a sec, social media companies got a big boost.
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Covid: The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine offers strong protection against severe illness caused by the Delta variant, but it's possibly less effective in preventing infection, according to a new study from Israel’s health ministry.
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Snap is TikTok’s older cousin who just came back from living abroad for a couple years and now looks...pretty hot.
The social media company’s stock catapulted nearly 24% after reporting its biggest growth quarter in four years Thursday. Daily active users climbed to 293 million in the second quarter, up 23% annually. Revenue more than doubled to $982 million, which was way above analysts’ estimates.
In short, it’s “hard to see anything that’s not firing on all cylinders,” Bernstein tech analyst Mark Shmulik said.
What’s working?
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Lockdowns ending: Posting on Snap is way more fun when you can travel and brag about it to your friends. In a previous earnings report, CEO Evan Spiegel said that easing Covid restrictions boosted Story posting and engagement with Snap Map.
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Digital ad boom: Snap’s improvements to its ad offerings and higher digital ad spending overall means brands are willing to pay more for a placement with Snap. That’s translated into mega revenue growth.
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No poison from Apple: Snap said that the rollout of Apple’s iOS 14.5 privacy update did not impact it as much as expected.
They’re going through changes
Social media companies are evolving as they transition from youth to middle-age. Snap has invested heavily in augmented reality and commerce—it wants you to shop online and “try on” clothing using its AR technology. Twitter, which also reported a stellar quarter Thursday, has introduced live audio, newsletters, and tip jars. Facebook’s goal is to become a “metaverse company,” which we’re not even sure Zuck knows the meaning of but we’ll be eager observers.
Platforms are also responding to the emerging power of “creators” to pull in users, exemplified by the success of TikTok. At one point Snap was doling out $1 million per day to creators on its TikTok-clone Spotlight, and Facebook is paying $1 billion to creators through 2022.
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Wally Skalij /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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A song from the video game Final Fantasy blares over the speakers to a mostly empty stadium as masked Olympic athletes parade around the track. Meanwhile, a small group of protestors outside can be heard chanting, “No to the Olympics!” and “Save people’s lives!” in reference to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. You look up and 1,800 drones form a spinning orb, visible throughout Tokyo—which is currently in a state of emergency due to a rise in coronavirus cases...
That was the scene at the Opening Ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics yesterday. Here are a few other standout moments:
- Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron.
- A Kabuki performer cleansed the stadium’s negative energy with traditional dance while Hiromi Uehara made everyone wish they could play piano.
- Keith Urban, John Legend, and other singers from across the globe sang “Imagine” together, because we learned nothing from Gal Gadot’s version.
Now comes the fun part: Here’s the master TV schedule for the athletic competitions.
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Truly
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We should’ve known when our mom texted us asking if we’d had the “white claw drink,” but hard seltzer is no longer the golden child of alcoholic beverages. Shares in Boston Beer, the company that makes Truly hard seltzer, collapsed 27% yesterday after it warned the seltzer party was over.
Hard seltzer was a fast-growing segment that reached $4.5 billion in global sales in 2020. But whether beer has made a comeback or people are just drinking less overall, Boston Beer said it “overestimated” the growth of hard seltzer in Q2 and said the future was “uncertain.”
- Founder Jim Koch blamed the miss on a maturing market and customer confusion, given all the options.
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We blame Truly Punch.
Zoom out: More than 150 brands are all competing to be your lake day drink, and the industry’s realizing that’s probably too many. Just a few weeks ago, Coors said it would be discontinuing its Coors Seltzer...so it can devote more resources to its other seltzer products.
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You can invest in fast food seasoned with the latest tech.
Miso Robotics is bringing Silicon Valley to QSR (quick-service restaurants, for any non-MBAs out there) by providing artificial intelligence for kitchens.
What that means: Miso uses a cloud-connected AI platform to power autonomous robotic kitchen assistants to perform tasks such as frying and grilling alongside chefs. You want the receipts?
- Miso product Flippy Fryer has fried 175,000+ lbs of food
- Flippy Grill has flipped 10,000+ burgers
Miso’s even kicking things up a notch (literally) by working with major QSR locations to integrate Flippy as an overhead rail system. The system will reduce the production cost by 50% and require no real estate footprint.
Sick of waiting around for your soda? Miso also announced a partnership with Lancer Worldwide to automate beverage dispensing.
Get in on the summer’s hottest collab—QSR x tech—here.
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Cleveland Guardians
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Stat: MLB’s Cleveland Indians will change their name for the first time since 1915 to the Cleveland Guardians after acknowledging that the previous name was offensive to many Native Americans. Here, let Tom Hanks tell you all about it.
Quote: “I want to be the biggest podcast in the world.”
Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper was the most popular person on the internet Thursday, with profiles in the WSJ, Time, Bustle, and Refinery29. Cooper’s podcast became exclusive to Spotify this week after she signed a $60 million contract with the streamer.
Read: The resurgent appeal of Guinness world records. (The Ringer)
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In this new Summer 2021 segment, the Brew’s personal finance writer Ryan Lasker is nose-diving into our inbox to address your personal finance questions. Submit your money woes here.
How much money should I be investing and saving in cash every month?—Sean from California
You can do three things with your income: spend it, save it, and invest it. Let your income, life situation, and goals inform your ideal mix. But cash comes first.
An emergency fund is your license to invest. Keep enough cash to cover three to six months of expenses in a savings account that you can tap in the face of financial hardship. Your job stability and risk appetite should guide how big you grow the emergency fund.
Depending on your financial goals, you might not need to save any more cash beyond that. Perhaps only Elon Musk appears in this newsletter as much as inflation, which is just one reason not to hoard more cash than is necessary.
If you don’t have any major purchases coming up—like buying a house—invest away in the stock market. But, money you’ll need in the next three years is best held in an FDIC high-yield savings account.
Don’t forget debt: Check out my column from a few weeks ago for help deciding between investing and paying down loans.
PS: Later this summer, Ryan will be writing a twice-weekly personal finance newsletter to make you smarter about your money. Become one of the first subscribers.
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Food delivery company Zomato, India’s first billion-dollar tech startup to go public, soared 65% in its trading debut.
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GM announced the second recall of its Chevy Bolt EV over potential fire risk.
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Some hospitals in Florida have more Covid-19 patients than during last summer’s surge.
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Rivian, an electric vehicle startup, raised $2.5 billion in a round led by Amazon, Ford, and T. Rowe Price.
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The fountain of metabolic youth. Sakara’s Metabolism Super Powder helps you break your sugar habit while improving digestion, controlling cravings, and eliminating bloat. A younger metabolism can be yours for 20% off with the code JULYBREW.*
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Weekend Conversation Starters:
Non-Kanye listening: In the words of Brew writer Matty Merrit, “this playlist is so gooooood.”
*This is sponsored advertising content
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This puzzle may or may not be related to the celebration of a particular type of booze today. Only one way to find out...play it here.
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