Morning Brew - ☕️ Zuck responds

Jeff Bezos is building a private space station...
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October 26, 2021 View Online | Sign Up

Morning Brew

E*TRADE

Good morning. We’re 30 days out from Thanksgiving, and given higher prices for everything from turkey to cranberry sauce, it could be the most expensive meal in the history of the holiday. On the bright side, we'll all be complaining about the same thing for once.

Matty Merritt, Max Knoblauch, Neal Freyman

MARKETS

Nasdaq

15,226.71

S&P

4,566.48

Dow

35,741.15

10-Year

1.635%

Bitcoin

$62,877.68

Moderna

$349.56

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: The S&P and Dow closed at record highs ahead of a bomb cyclone of earnings reports this week. Moderna shares jumped after it said its vaccine was safe and effective for kids ages 6–11, according to interim data from its trials.
  • Covid: The US released the details of its plan to open up its borders to more international travelers on Nov. 8—the biggest update to travel restrictions since the pandemic began.

AUTO

Hertz Sends Tesla to the $Top

Yellow Tesla on a pedastal with "$1 trillion" on front with confetti

Francis Scialabba

While most of us spent yesterday eating all the candy we planned to give out on Halloween, Elon Musk was busy making auto history. After Hertz ordered 100,000 of Tesla’s electric vehicles, the automaker’s share price jumped 12.7%, giving it a market capitalization of $1 trillion.

Only Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have entered the four comma club in the US. Facebook hit $1 trillion the fastest of all (within 17 years of being founded), but Tesla is currently worth about $83 billion more than the social media company. It took Tesla 18 years after its founding to reach the milestone.

Tesla + Hertz = Largest Deal EVer

Last spring, when no one was traveling and rental cars sat idle in parking lots, Hertz filed for bankruptcy. But like a phoenix rising from the charred remains of a 2019 Chevy Malibu, the rental car company reorganized and said, “No going home, just going big.”

How big? Hertz’s purchase of the Teslas, reportedly worth $4.2 billion, is the largest EV deal in history. With it, Teslas could make up over 20% of Hertz’s entire fleet while offering the EV-curious more opportunities to test them out. Hertz Interim CEO Mark Fields said that “electric vehicles are now mainstream” and adoption has only just begun.

Zooming out on the auto race

It’s not even close. If we’re measuring by market capitalization, which is used to approximate a company’s worth, Tesla is Lewis Hamilton and the competition is your grandma.

  • Tesla is worth as much as 19 other automakers, including Toyota, GM, Honda, and Nissan, combined.
  • Tesla’s value is 15x higher than Ford’s, even though Ford brought in $115+ billion more in revenue last year.

Tesla’s wide lead over its rivals shows that investors believe the future of the auto industry lies in electric vehicles, and that Elon Musk’s company is poised to capture a big chunk of that market.

As for Mr. Musk...he’s shopping with the price filter set high to low. Thanks to Tesla’s surging share price, Musk’s fortune increased by $25.6 billion yesterday to hit $255.2 billion—richer than any billionaire Forbes has ever tracked.—MM

        

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook to Critics

A rugby player stiff-arming defenders

Giphy

Thousands of pages of leaked research. Reports blaring of an “existential crisis.” Apple’s privacy updates hurting ad visibility. And yet, the Zuck machine keeps growing.

Facebook said Q3 revenue increased 35% from last year, and that 3.58 billion people worldwide use its apps, up 12% from the year prior. Investors sent shares up nearly 2% after hours, relieved that FB continues to grow sales and users despite its regulatory and PR nightmares.

About those PR nightmares: Dozens of publications have been releasing damning reports of the company’s practices based on documents provided by whistleblower Frances Haugen. An agitated CEO Mark Zuckerberg labeled it a “coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company” on the earnings call.

Looking ahead...Zuck knows he’s getting creamed by rivals like TikTok in engaging younger users, so he said the company will be “retooling” its products over the next few years to make “serving young adults the north star, rather than optimizing for older people.”—NF

        

SPACE

Space, Available for Lease

A computer generated image of Blue Origin's planned private space station orbiting earth

Orbital Reef/Blue Origin

The infinite vastness of space, now with kombucha on tap. Yesterday, Blue Origin unveiled plans to launch Orbital Reef, a private space station it describes as a “mixed-use business park,” between 2025 and 2030.

Think of Orbital Reef as a kind of “Starship WeWork”—the station’s design will feature separate quarters for living and working, enabling it to be leased out for work, research, and tourism. It would be nearly as spacious as the International Space Station and be habitable for up to 10 people.

Blue Origin isn't free soloing this project: Its primary partner is Sierra Space, a subsidiary of the Sierra Nevada Corporation (not to be confused with the pale ale). Blue Origin will launch Orbital Reef and provide its utility systems, while Sierra Space will transport cargo and crew to and from the station.

Other private space stations are also in the works. Space startup Nanoracks announced plans to help replace NASA’s orbital laboratory with its Starlab station in 2027, and Axiom plans to launch a module to attach to the ISS in 2024 (and eventually separate from it as the station is retired).—MK

        

SPONSORED BY E*TRADE

Fall Is For Dreamers

E*TRADE

You get to dress up like a flamingo for Halloween, daylight savings grants you an extra hour of sleep (read: extra dreams), and everyone’s dreamin’ of all that bite-size candy they’ll steal from share with their kids. 

It’s also the perfect time to think about working towards bigger, lifesize dreams too.

That’s where E*TRADE comes in.

E*TRADE can help you start investing with confidence as you build a path to the big stuff on your list—like buying a house, taking a vacation, or packin’ up and moving to the mountains.

With easy-to-use tools, no account minimums, and $0 commissions, E*TRADE takes the spooky out of managing your money.

Start investing with E*TRADE today.

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GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: Alibaba founder Jack Ma criticized Chinese financial regulators in a bombshell speech on October 24, 2020. In the year since, the e-commerce giant lost $344 billion in market cap, the biggest drop in value of any company in the world, Bloomberg reports.

Quote: “We are way off track.”

That’s how the head of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization described the findings of a new climate report, which showed that greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record high in 2020...despite pandemic lockdowns.

Read: What’s the deal with fictional influencers? (Vox)

        

GAMING

Esports: Not Just a FaZe

Team FaZe Clan during a break in between games against team OpTic Gaming during Call of Duty World League at Anaheim Convention Center on June 16, 2019 in Anaheim, California.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Gone are the days of companies started in garages. Now, they begin as YouTube channels full of Call of Duty killshot videos and eventually become unicorns.

That’s the story of FaZe Clan, at least. The esports/gaming culture company will go public via SPAC at a $1 billion valuation.

Pretty influential: FaZe Clan claims to have a community of 350 million across its social channels, with 80% of the members between the ages of 13–34. And it’s partnered with basically every company under the sun hungry to reach that youthful audience: McDonald’s, DC Comics, General Mills, and Champion, to name a handful.

But FaZe’s recognizable partnerships don’t stop at brands. The company’s part-owners include Pitbull, Offset, skateboarder Nyjah Huston, and NBA stars Ben Simmons and Jamal Murray.

Last year, the company announced the creation of an entertainment studio called FaZe Studios, focused on feature films and scripted TV that gels with the “aspirational gaming lifestyle” brand.

FaZe Clan will hit the Nasdaq in 2022 with the ticker symbol (what else) FAZE.—MK

        

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • PayPal quashed rumors that it was interested in buying Pinterest.
  • Amazon workers at its Staten Island warehouse filed a petition to form a union.
  • Sudan’s military staged a coup, arresting the prime minister and dissolving the transitional government. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest.
  • Russia-linked hackers who pulled off the SolarWinds cyberattack last year are targeting players in the global tech supply chain, Microsoft said.

SPONSORED BY E*TRADE

E*TRADE

#goals. Whether it’s a new car, buying your first home, or taking that road trip to see the national parks—dreams mean something. E*TRADE can help you put your money to work as you pursue those goals, offering a full range of investment choices, easy-to-use tools, $0 commissions, and more. Start investing with E*TRADE today.

*Paid Advertisement

BREW'S BETS

Data viz: Watch the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the US in 60 seconds.

Tech Tip Tuesday: For when charts get too cumbersome, check out this Excel hack that fits graphs in a single cell (h/t Money Scoop).

Brew’s Bookshelf: Every other week, Brew’s Bookshelf brings you a few of our favorite reads:

  • Max Chafkin profiles the controversial tech mogul Peter Thiel in The Contrarian.
  • For a deep dive into the US’ response to Covid-19, read Michael Lewis’s latest, The Premonition.

FROM THE CREW

Marketing News, With a Brew Twist

streaming wars visual

Francis Scialabba

Arriving in your inbox Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Marketing Brew is the newsletter that delivers the biggest stories in marketing, advertising, and periodically, artificially intelligent copywriting bots.

From career advice, social media, and email marketing to AI-generated ad copy, Marketing Brew is the must-have publication whether you’re an agency lifer or just dabbling in PR for your friend’s hard seltzer. We don’t need subliminal messaging to tell you this: Level up your marketing chops by subscribing to Marketing Brew today.

PS: If you want to get a taste of what Marketing Brew is all about, check out their virtual event tomorrow all about brand purpose. You can register here.

GAMES

The Puzzle Section

Brew Mini: What do Zendaya and a cosmopolitan ingredient have in common? They both show up in today's Mini. Play it here.

Road Trip Trivia

The World Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves starts today. On the drive from Houston to Atlanta, you will pass by two universities in the SEC. Can you name both?

SHARE THE BREW

We’re Giving Away Headphones + a Hilton Stay

An illustration of travel luggage to promote our giveaway

If you want free stuff, you’ve come to the right newsletter section. We’re running a giveaway this week to get more cool gadgets into your pockets, and potentially get you a 5-night stay at Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

All you need to do is get a few friends to sign up for this newsletter. Here are the deets:

  • The first 1,000 people to refer 5 friends to the newsletter will receive a limited edition pair of Morning Brew headphones.
  • Of those referrers, one will be randomly selected to win a 5-night stay at any Hilton Hotel & Resort in the world.

Bottom line: Get going on referring your fave newsletter to your friends and family, and headphones (and maybe a stay) could be on their way.

Share to Win

ANSWER

LSU (in Baton Rouge, LA) and Auburn (in Auburn, AL)

✳︎ A Note From E*TRADE

No commissions on online stock, options and ETF trades. Exclusions and other fees may apply. For more information on pricing, visit etrade.com/pricing.

         

Written by Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, and Max Knoblauch

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