| Good morning. Almost four years after their Bahamian paradise getaway turned into a scene out of Black Mirror, a group of Fyre Festival attendees reached a settlement for $7,220/apiece. You know what they say: Justice isn't always there when you call, but it's always on time. | | MARKETS 1-DAY PERFORMANCE | | | | | | | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks hit record highs and the Dow surpassed 34,000 points for the first time. Dogecoin went absolutely parabolic for reasons unbeknownst to us.
- Economy: Retail sales spiked 9.8% in March and last week's jobless claims fell to a pandemic-era low. Something is working for the US economy, and that something is likely stimulus + vaccines.
- Covid: India's outbreak is on an alarming trajectory, topping 200,000 daily cases yesterday. France became the third country in Europe (after the UK and Italy) to record 100,000 Covid deaths. And the Biden administration said a third "booster" shot will likely be necessary 9–12 months after someone's been fully vaccinated.
| |  Francis Scialabba | Yesterday, lumber futures hit $1,260 per thousand board feet on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. If that sounds like a lot, well, it is—an all-time high. Lumber prices have soared during the pandemic. Last April, that same order would've cost just $358. If you think this doesn't affect you...you probably haven't been house hunting recently. Astronomical lumber prices have added $24,000 to the cost of a typical single-family home and $9,000 per apartment, according to the National Association of Home Builders. What's going on? 1. The pandemic. At its outset, Covid forced many mills to temporarily close. When historically low mortgage rates met a summer wave of homebuying, renovations, and DIY-ing, producers were unprepared for the demand surge. Lumber prices kept rising during the winter months, so homebuilders and lumber yards delayed their purchases, hoping prices would come down. Now, with the busy spring/summer building season ahead, homebuilders and lumber yards are rushing to get coveted boards, driving prices even higher. 2. The plague. Not the human one. Since the 1990s, warmer winters have caused mountain beetles to spread further across British Columbia, infecting more forests. Their arboreal appetites have diminished harvests. - Somewhat ironically, in Europe, a different beetle plague is also getting worse and forcing loggers to cut down infected trees before the wood becomes unusable. As the US looks for more supply, Europe has extra to export.
3. Labor. Mills could theoretically produce more...except some are facing labor shortages. While the job can include lots of Vitamin D and flannel, low pay and the difficult, sometimes dangerous work required has pinched manpower. Bottom line: The number of homes for sale continues to sit near a record low. While that should be a dream for construction businesses, rising prices and tight inventories for lumber and other building materials have made it more expensive for builders and, in turn, created an affordability crisis for buyers. | |  picture alliance/Getty Images | When Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote his first letter to shareholders, the year was 1997, the company was doing $148 million in annual revenue, and an "important" strategic partnership with America Online was just inked. In his final letter before he steps down as CEO, published yesterday, Bezos noted $45 billion in revenue for Amazon Web Services alone, 200 million Amazon Prime members, and 1.3 million employees globally. And reflections on those employees accounted for most of what Bezos wrote. He discussed the recent union vote in Bessemer, AL, which Amazon defeated but that nonetheless drew national attention to employees' frustrations with working conditions. Bezos admitted, "We need a better vision for how we create value for employees—a vision for their success." - Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the US behind Walmart. It hired 500,000 people just last year as the pandemic juiced demand for online shopping.
Parting thoughts: If there was one thing Bezos wanted to get across in this letter, it's to embrace what makes you, you. He wrote, "The world wants you to be typical–in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don't let it happen." Read the entire letter. | |  Google Earth Timelapse shows effects of mining in Wright, Wyoming | If you weren't stressed enough about climate change, Google Earth just released its latest feature, Timelapse, to really make you sweat. With over 24 million satellite photos compiled into an interactive 4D experience, it's one of the clearest visuals yet of how our planet has changed over the past four decades. Users can toggle from the devastation from Australian wildfires to the rapid growth of San Francisco on the same screen. Google didn't create it just to hurt you. The company wanted to build a tool for governments, researchers, journalists, and teachers to witness the "rapid environmental change in the past half-century." How it came to be: Google partnered with organizations including NASA and the US Geological Survey's Landsat program to collect images from 1984–2020 of every location on Earth—yes, even Nebraska. Google said the project took 2 million processing hours across thousands of machines, but stuck to its green commitment and used 100% renewable energy. Bottom line: Easily accessible collections of clear satellite images might be the strongest tool in the fight against climate change. | | SPONSORED BY HEINEKEN 0.0 |  | If time is money, then Heineken 0.0 is the gold standard of beverages that you can (and should) enjoy while doing, well, pretty much anything. It's the refreshing, balanced taste of Heineken, without any alcohol. With Heineken 0.0, you can drink on the job. Grab a mug and write your boss the most articulate, grammatically-correct email they've ever read. Drink a Heineken 0.0 and go on to crush your very big, very important, career-defining presentation. Heck, you can even down a Heineken 0.0 and then hang 10 (we think that means surf). Or channel surf while you savor the magnum opus of beer flavor. And at only 69 calories, you're basically out of reasons not to live your life with a Heineken 0.0 in hand. Grab a pack of buzz-free Heineken 0.0 today—or better yet, get it delivered. | |  Meme | Stat: Charles Schwab added more clients in Q1 of 2021 (3.2 million) than in all of 2020. Why? Greater interest in high-growth tech companies and meme stocks, said the CEO. Quote: "We are grateful for all feedback." Maybe. The BBC said that it received 109,741 complaints over its wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Philip's death, making it the most complained-about programming decision in the company's 98-year history. Read: How Tiger Global is disrupting venture capital. (The Valley of Dunning–Kruger) | |  Mercedes-Benz | In a win for cool dads everywhere, Mercedes-Benz revealed its new 2022 EQS luxury electric sedan yesterday. The model is scheduled to hit car dealerships in the fall and represents the first of nine electric vehicles the German auto brand plans to release within the year. The EQS can get an impressive 478 miles of range by European standards, but that number is expected to go down when it's tested in the US. There's a chance it could still beat out Tesla's longest-range Model S, but we'll leave I-80 to settle that debate. Other features include: - A 56-inch "Hyperscreen" dashboard consisting of three different screens for passengers to watch Justice League the way Zach Snyder intended.
- Automatic doors.
- Hot stone seat massagers.
Zoom out: Its two-tone paint job is cool, but the most interesting part of the EQS is what it means for other legacy car companies trying to transition away from combustion engines. If EVs are the future of driving, luxury brands need to get it in gear. | |  Francis Scialabba | The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to leaving a cookie in milk for just the right amount of time. It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz. | | - China's economy grew 0.6% in Q1 quarter-over-quarter and a record 18.3% from Q1 2020, when the coronavirus led to severe lockdowns.
- The US slapped sanctions on dozens of Russian nationals and companies over election-meddling and cyber attacks.
- Citi and Bank of America continued the run of strong bank earnings.
- Walmart has made an investment in Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company backed by GM.
- Delta posted a $1.2 billion loss last quarter, but said it could return to profitability by late summer.
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