| Good morning. We begin today's newsletter with some tragic news: Eight people were killed, including six women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors yesterday. A suspect is in custody, and police have not yet determined a motive. But the shootings come during a time when anti-Asian hate incidents are on the rise in the US—nearly 3,800 have been reported since the pandemic began last March. | | | |  | NASDAQ | 13,471.57 | + 0.09% | |  | S&P | 3,962.71 | - 0.16% | | | | DOW | 32,825.95 | - 0.39% | | | | GOLD | 1,729.60 | - 0.08% | | | | 10-YR | 1.617% | + 0.70 bps | | | | OIL | 64.93 | + 0.20% | | | *As of market close. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Economy: Turns out, people do less when it's freezing out. Retail sales fell 3% last month, and factory production also dipped due to snow + brutally low temps. Analysts aren't too worried, since the economy is projected to bounce back this spring in historic fashion.
- Markets: All eyes are on the Fed today, which will update investors on its current view of the economy. Given concerns that a surging economic rebound might lead the Fed to ease up on its pandemic-era stimulus measures, Bank of America called the meeting "one of the most critical events for the Fed in some time."
| |  Francis Scialabba | Volkswagen shares rose 10% yesterday after execs detailed their master plan to be No. 1 in the electric vehicle (EV) market by 2025, which includes: - More than double the number of EV deliveries this year
- Build six new European battery factories
- Employ 10,000 developers (making it the largest European software firm behind SAP)
Will that be enough? Tesla's slipping market value (shares are down over 23% since their January high, including a 4.4% dip yesterday) shows that investors see real competition as Volkswagen and other legacy automakers double down on EVs. While Tesla is years ahead in the software department, Volkswagen could gain an advantage in batteries, which currently account for over 30% of an EV's cost. VW thinks it can halve battery costs with next-gen solid-state batteries starting in 2025. - And with 70 new electric models on the way this decade, Volkswagen could match Tesla EV sales as soon as 2022 and outstrip it by a margin of 300,000 come 2025, UBS predicts.
Big picture: Analysts see room for Tesla and Volkswagen in the growing EV market, per Bloomberg. If Tesla is the Apple (a dominant luxury brand with charging tech no one else can use), Volkswagen is well positioned to become the Samsung. Still, this won't be easy Most Volkswagen revenues come from gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, and the pandemic sent overall sales down 15% last year. In its first disclosure of individual unit performance, the company said that operating profits fell almost 90% at its namesake brand and 40% at Audi. Plus, the company is still lugging around some heavy baggage. Former CEO Martin Winterkorn goes on trial next month for charges related to Dieselgate, the massive 2015 scandal where the automaker was found to have cheated on emissions tests. | | | In a first for the company, Uber said it will reclassify its 70,000+ drivers in the UK as "workers." Seems like a minor edit, but in the world of the gig economy titles matter. The change means that Uber drivers in the UK will now earn the minimum wage (roughly $12.11 per hour), receive vacation pay, and be automatically enrolled in a pension plan. The backstory: Uber's business model of employing drivers to give strangers a lift has been challenged by governments around the world for not providing sufficient benefits. - The UK has proven to be the most successful foe. Last month, the British Supreme Court dismissed Uber's argument that its drivers weren't workers.
Zoom out: As part of the agreement, Uber will only pay the minimum wage for drivers when they're with a passenger, so overall earnings may not change much. But the decision will certainly give labor activists a big confidence boost as they take on Uber in other courtrooms, including in the US. | |  Gordon Gekko in 'Wall Street' | If HBO's Industry is any guide, working in finance involves a lot of flirting and cruel jokes. Both of those are trickier to do on Zoom, which might explain why banking execs are so antsy to get back to IRL office work. Last week, anti-WFH Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told employees that he hopes to have them back in offices by this summer. - The announcement came at a
 time for Solomon. Goldman's numbers are gold, man—revenue surged 22% in 2020 and the stock has doubled in the past year. But Solomon's complaints about remote work have reportedly caused frustration among employees. Then yesterday, we learned that JPMorgan is planning for summer interns in New York and London to work in-person. Zoom out: JPMorgan's NYC interns will get lunch from very empty Midtown Sweetgreens. Less than half of Manhattan's 1 million office employees are expected to return to the office by September, per the Partnership for New York City. | |  | The IT you get with Electric is so sizzlin' hot, they're throwing in a free pair of Ray-Ban sunnies. Electric can help your small to medium-sized organization future-proof its IT strategy, all while protecting your eyes from sun damage. For a limited time, Electric will gift you a $200 Ray-Ban gift card when you take a qualified meeting with them. It's that simple. At this point you're probably so blindsided by the prospect of brand spankin' new shades that you didn't realize all the ways Electric is giving IT a future brighter than the sun, so allow us to enlighten you. Electric delivers: - Lightning-fast, chat-based support
- 105% ROI, proven by Forrester's Total Economic Impact report
- Proactive security standardization across devices, apps, and networks
- Streamlined employee onboarding and offboarding
Take your IT strategy (and sunglasses game) to the next level. Schedule a demo with Electric today. | |  Christopher Morris - Corbis/Getty Images | Stat: Canada's residential real estate sector accounts for a greater share of the economy than in any other high-income country, per the Bank of International Settlements. And it's led to an affordability crisis: Vancouver is the second-least affordable city in the world, up from #15 in 2006. And Toronto has moved from #37 to #5 over the same time span. Quote: "We are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19 with its associated risk of hospitalization and death outweigh the risk of the side effects." Emer Cooke, the head of the EU's drug regulator, said there is no evidence that AstraZeneca's vaccine has been causing the blood clots found in 37 people who've received the vaccine across the EU and Britain. 13 EU countries have suspended the shot due to concerns over blood clots. Read: A hacker got all my texts for $16. (Vice) | | | Q from Andrew: Why have I seen so many new ETFs pop up recently? And...what exactly are ETFs? The Brew's A: ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, are investment products that give you a way to buy and sell a basket of assets without having to buy all the components individually. The cooler part is they trade on an ~exchange~ like any stock, making them easy to buy and sell. - The first ETF launched in the US in 1993 under the ticker "SPY." It tracks the S&P 500.
- Most ETFs are like SPY—they track indexes. But there are many other kinds of ETFs, including sector ETFs, bond ETFs, commodity ETFs, and even inverse ETFs, which seek to cash in on an industry's decline.
ETFs are attractive because they're easy to access and allow you to invest in many different assets at once, plus they're often more tax-efficient than mutual funds. And in recent years, ETFs have been one of the most disruptive forces in investing. They topped $5 trillion in assets under management last November, and Bank of America projects the market will hit $50 trillion by 2030. Thanks for the question, Andrew. If you have any other business-related questions, ask here. | | - Moderna has begun testing its Covid-19 vaccine on children under 12.
- eToro, the Israeli trading platform and Robinhood rival, is going public via SPAC in a $10.4 billion deal.
- Google reduced the commission it takes from Android developers on their first $1 million in revenue, following a similar move by Apple.
- The teenager who gained control of Twitter accounts of some of the world's most powerful people last summer pleaded guilty and agreed to serve three years in prison.
- LeBron James is joining Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club, as a partner.
| | SPONSORED BY APOLLO NEURO |  | Stress less, sleep more. Apollo Neuro is a new wearable that improves your body's resilience to stress. By engaging your sense of touch with soothing vibrations, Apollo Neuro helps you feel safe and in control of your stress levels—that way, you can relax, fall asleep, clear your mind, or stay energized. Take 10% off your Apollo Neuro here. | |  | When YouTube starts talking smack to air fryer, you know the Greatest Product of All Time tournament is getting good. Only 16 products remain, and today you'll have the opportunity to vote them down to eight. The matchups Legends region: #1 Coca-Cola vs. #12 Boeing 747 // #2 Lego vs. #3 Nintendo 64 Unsung Heroes region: #1 Microsoft Windows vs. #12 Tylenol // #2 Google Maps vs. #3 Duct tape Innovators region: #1 iPhone vs. #12 AirPods // #2 YouTube vs. #14 Air fryer (no way they can pull this off, right?) Simply Make Life Better region: #1 Google Search vs. #4 Spotify // #2 Netflix vs. #3 Uber app It's going to be a dramatic day. Make sure you head to our Twitter account to vote starting at 9am. | | | It's our annual St. Patrick's Day trivia tradition: We'll write the first part of a popular Irish saying, and you have to complete it. Ready? Here we go. - The older the fiddle the sweeter the...
- May your home always be too small to hold all your...
- You'll never plow a field by...
- May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never...
- If you're enough lucky to be Irish…
| | | When you share the Brew with your network, you earn free swag like our classic Morning Brew t-shirt. Are you one of those people who is always going places? Then you probably need a shirt. Might as well be this bad boy with the Morning Brew logo plastered across the chest. 
Hit the button below to learn more and access your rewards hub. Click to ShareOr copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=8386977e | | | 1. The older the fiddle the sweeter the tune.
2. May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.
3. You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.
4. May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never catch up.
5. If you're enough lucky to be Irish, you're lucky enough! | | |
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