| Good morning. Some interesting factoids from Hershey's before we dive in: The company found that demand for its chocolate bars spiked in zip codes with higher Covid levels, because people stayed at home and made S'mores around their backyard firepits. Don't let that give you any ideas tonight... | | | |  | NASDAQ | 11,875.21 | - 0.13% | | | | S&P | 3,504.49 | - 0.17% | | | | DJIA | 28,297.31 | - 0.33% | |  | GOLD | 1,953.80 | + 0.36% | | | | 10-YR | 0.814% | + 4.40 bps | | | | OIL | 37.22 | - 4.05% | | | *As of market close | - Economy: Ready to be cautiously optimistic? The U.S. economy added 638,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate fell to 6.9%. The recovery may be slowing down, but it's still chugging along.
- Markets: Not sure anyone saw this coming but, even with all the handwringing over the election, stocks had their best week since April.
| |  Tom Brenner/Getty Images | Former Vice President Joe Biden could soon try on a new moniker—President-elect Joe Biden. If he keeps his current lead in Pennsylvania, which election experts anticipate, Biden would secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to clinch the White House. His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would become the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian American person to be elected VP. While Biden's Democratic Party is also on track to maintain its majority in the House of Representatives, it looks like the Senate could remain in Republican control—we'll know more in January after two runoff Senate races in Georgia. Biden's would be a very different administration The nuts and bolts of Biden's legislating will depend on how negotiations with Congress play out, but the outline of Biden's economic platform has three key pillars: - The wealthy will pay more. Biden promised to hike tax rates on income above $400,000 to 39.6% from 37% currently. He also said he'd slap payroll taxes on that high-rolling bracket, and scrap tax breaks for capital gains and dividends. The top 0.1% of earners would pay 43% in income taxes under Biden's plan, per the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
- Companies will pay more. Biden ran on a pledge to increase the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. He also proposed leveling higher taxes on companies that move overseas.
- The government will spend more. Biden's platform included $2 trillion earmarked to jumpstart clean energy projects and $1.5 trillion for healthcare. Biden's proposed plan for a coronavirus stimulus package includes another round of direct payments to Americans, though we don't know how much.
Zoom out: If the GOP does maintain control of the Senate, Biden's legislative agenda could face a McConnell-sized roadblock. That's the exact gridlock investors cheered earlier this week, because it'd likely keep Trump's pro-biz legislation intact. Looking ahead...if Biden does secure the 270, we'd have a "lame duck" presidency. That's the common term for the next three-ish months when President Trump would retain power in the White House before making way for Biden. | |  Giphy | While the "blue wave" many expected on election night week didn't quite materialize, "a green landslide" did, according to Boris Jordan, chairman of cannabis company Curaleaf Holdings. - Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota all passed legislation legalizing some form of marijuana use. And the dominoes will likely keep falling. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said conditions in his state are "ripe" for legalization by next year.
- Plus, on Wednesday, Canadian pot company Aphria agreed to acquire Atlanta-based Sweetwater Brewing Co. (which makes weed-flavored beer) for $300 million to expand its U.S. footprint.
It gave investors the munchies Aurora Cannabis was the snack of choice, rising 56% yesterday to push its post-Election Day rally to nearly 100%. Shares in two other cannabis industry leaders, Tilray and Canopy Growth, also had a most excellent Friday, jumping 23% and 11% respectively. Zoom out: Despite the past week's good vibes, it's still been a rough year for marijuana companies. Aurora was sitting at a four-year low as recently as September after misjudging demand for premium products during the pandemic. | | | Glad you asked—quite a lot. The northern region of the country went into lockdown yesterday as the government tried to stamp out a mutated version of the coronavirus that's linked to minks. In addition to implementing the extra restrictions, the government this week said it would cull all of the minks in the country—a number between 15 million and 17 million, per officials. Big picture: Denmark, which has over 1,100 mink farms, is the world's largest exporter of mink fur. The government will try to prop up mink farmers, but most expect the industry to be completely devastated (a development animal rights activists are cheering). Is this necessary? Denmark's foreign minister said the decision was not taken lightly and that he'd "rather go a step too far than take a step too little to combat Covid-19." The WHO appeared to take a less aggressive tack, reiterating that mutations happen all the time in viruses and that there's no evidence yet that this variant (which infected 12 people so far) is more dangerous to humans. | |  | Flippy, by Miso Robotics, is the world's first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant. That you can invest in. But the campaign ends this month. Wow, time really fries when you're revolutionizing the quick service restaurant industry. The meat of it is this: Flippy can help restaurants increase profit margins by 300%. And you can invest in it until November 20. Flippy's garnered over 10 billion impressions with $0 marketing spend. That seems investment-worthy—but, like, hurry. Relish the chance to make some money and invest in Flippy before the campaign ends. | | | Things that have been elevated this week: heart rates, map watching, and Karen Lynch to CEO of retail pharmacy chain CVS. Lynch, the current president of Aetna, the insurance company CVS acquired for $68 billion in 2018, will become the 40th female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. - Wall Street's reaction? "We stan." CVS stock closed up ~6% yesterday.
The biz is also healthy CVS beat Q3 revenue expectations by about $400 million thanks to a surprisingly robust 6% rise in retail sales compared to last year. However, even if people are comfortable making late-night Twizzler runs, they're still wary of visits to the doctor's office: new prescriptions we're down from 2019 levels. Zoom out: Lynch might be sleeping less than John King when she takes over in February. CVS, which has already issued over 6 million Covid-19 tests since March, has also partnered with the government to help vaccinate residents of long-term and assisted living facilities as soon as a viable vaccine becomes available. | |  Giphy | The pinnacle of efficiency. | | - The NBA is close to finalizing a deal that would tip off the 2020-2021 season on December 22.
- Marriott reported a surprise profit last quarter. But keep in mind...expenses were down 57%.
- Warner Bros. forced Johnny Depp to resign from his role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise days after the actor lost his libel suit against The Sun tabloid.
- The Trade Desk stock has been looking very hockey-stick-like recently. The ad-tech company rode the streaming TV wave to better-than-expected earnings in Q3.
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- When someone's camera is turned off in a Zoom call, what do you assume they're doing?
- PS5 or Xbox?
Speaking of: The PlayStation 5, which ships to early order-ers next week, got an 8/10 from IGN, was called an "entertaining behemoth" by the NYT, and was subjected to a super technical breakdown by Ars Technica. | |  | It doesn't have a couch or wi-fi yet, but otherwise the Brew Crossword is all moved in to its new home on Saturdays. We've got a great puzzle, created by Brew reader Deesha Shah, to kick off the new era. Give it a shot here. If you want to have your name in lights (aka in this section, right next to your crossword), check out our guidelines and submit your own. | | | It only takes 3 referrals to earn access to Light Roast, our exclusive Sunday newsletter. Just the right amount of Brew to go with your lazy Sunday morning. You don't even need to train the dog to fetch it from the driveway. 
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