| Good morning. Among the tweaks we've been making to improve the newsletter is a revamped referral rewards program, which allows you to get free stuff when you share the Brew. Here are those changes, reflecting all your helpful feedback: - When you hit three referrals, you'll get an invite to attend an exclusive monthly event featuring cofounder Alex Lieberman interviewing the biggest names in business.
- At 1,000 (yes, a decent chunk of people do get there), we'll give your WFH setup an epic makeover.
- Along the journey from 3 → 1,000 you have the opportunity to win swag like a Brew mug, pint glasses, and a crewneck sweatshirt.
Start winning those prizes now. | | | |  | Nasdaq | 13,124.99 | | | | | S&P | 4,112.50 | | | | | Dow | 34,021.45 | | | | | Bitcoin | $49,246.05 | | |  | 10-Year | 1.661% | | | | | Tesla | $571.69 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: 10 out of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 closed in the green yesterday following a few days of steep sell-offs. Tesla dropped a day after Elon Musk said the company would stop accepting bitcoin as payment for cars due to environmental concerns.
- Economy: Jobless claims fell to a new pandemic-era low of 473,000 last week. So far, 12 states have announced they'll stop distributing extra unemployment benefits as soon as June or July.
| |  Francis Scialabba | The fizzle. Some of the biggest companies to IPO in 2020 and early 2021 are finding the public markets to be less inviting than a middle school boy's treehouse. The Renaissance IPO ETF, which holds a number of public companies that IPOed within the last two years, has fallen nearly 30% from its peak in February. Let's check in on a few of the companies: - Airbnb: It may be the most valuable hospitality company in the world, but its stock has dropped more than 37% from its high and now sits below its opening price. Yesterday, CEO Brian Chesky predicted the "travel rebound of the century" this summer.
- DoorDash: The delivery company's stock was down 47% from its peak, but it popped more than 7% after hours following a strong earnings report yesterday. Revenue jumped 219% annually last quarter.
- Coinbase: In its first earnings report as a public company, the huge crypto exchange missed expectations and continues to trade well below its opening price. It said it would add more cryptocurrencies to its platform, including dogecoin in six to eight weeks.
- Snowflake: The cloud data firm backed by Berkshire Hathaway made a splash last fall as the largest software IPO ever, but it's fallen more than 51% from its high.
- Bumble: Shares in the dating company dipped below their initial price of $43 yesterday after reporting a mixed bag of earnings this week.
The big picture Given the wide range of industries these companies serve, it's hard to pinpoint one specific reason for their struggles. They're more like runaway buoys drifting in the choppy waters of the market, where investors have been piling out of tech stocks over fears of inflation and tighter monetary policy. But the drooping share prices of freshly public companies is enough to spook some private firms from taking the IPO plunge. Hearing care services provider Hear.com and mortgage insurer Enact Holdings recently delayed their IPOs because of market volatility. Bottom line: It could take a lot more market mayhem to stop this IPO train, though. Last year, companies raised a record $167 billion in public listings, and they've already raised $158 billion so far this year. | |  Francis Scialabba | Or mask acne for those who have had perfect skin for the past year. The CDC said yesterday that fully vaccinated people (meaning two weeks post-final shot) don't need to wear face masks in most indoor and outdoor settings. Dr. Anthony Fauci also doubled down on the CDC's April statement, telling CBS yesterday morning that "if you are vaccinated and you are outside, put aside your mask, you don't have to wear it." You heard the man, show us your face. Health-care settings, buses/trains, and airplanes are all spaces you'll still have to mask up regardless of vaccine status, but the announcement is sure to push the US even further toward a full-scale reopening. - 29 states have already fully reopened all nonessential businesses, and 22 states (and growing) don't have mask mandates.
- More than 1.7 million people traveled via US airports last Sunday, the most daily passengers since the pandemic started.
Just in time for a summer of long weekends. As of Thursday, 59% of US adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, inching closer to Biden's new goal of 70% by the Fourth of July so they can all come to his barbecue. | |  Francis Scialabba | Later this year, JPMorgan Chase, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo will join several other banks in a pilot program offering credit cards to people without credit scores, the WSJ reported. How's that gonna work? Under the government-backed initiative, the companies will share information with each other about credit card applicants' bank accounts. They'll examine balances and overdraft histories to identify financially responsible individuals who weren't able to build credit before. - Eventually, the banks may make other financial products, like auto loans or mortgages, available to approved customers as well.
While banks and credit reporting firms have tried setting up alternative risk models before, they haven't found an industry-wide solution. Last summer's protests around racial injustice provided an extra push, and last year, banking, fintech, and nonprofit leaders met with the Treasury Department to find ways to get more credit into historically disadvantaged communities. Big picture: For decades, a credit score was the golden ticket to a credit card. While there's no shortage of finance startups hawking credit-building apps to consumers as young as 13, a massive banking gap persists among adults: The creators of the FICO score estimate that 53 million US adults lack traditional credit scores. | |  | A diamond is a piece of coal that has handled stress exceptionally well. Whether that stress is from 725,000 pounds of pressure or an unstable economy...who's to say? When it comes to finding diamonds in the rough, no one's better than Fundrise, the peeps creating real estate investing's future by giving you access to institutional-quality private market real estate. Fundrise sorts through the coal that is thousands of potential deals each year and looks for diamonds: well-priced, well-located properties that they believe are well-positioned to thrive in any economic environment. That's a lot of wells—and even more potential returns. By cutting out the middlemen and slashing unnecessary high fees with their direct-to-consumer tech, Fundrise has given us unrivaled access to the historically stable and high-performing world of real estate investing. Open up a portfolio today. | |  Julio Aguilar/Getty Images | Stat: The WNBA tips off its 25th anniversary season tonight, and less than half of the 12 teams currently share ownership with an NBA squad, per Axios. When the league started, all eight teams were located in cities with NBA teams and were required to share ownership. Quote: "I think she appreciated it. It might not be the most traditionally romantic thing to do, but I figure that I'm helping her make a great investment." South Korean college student Jung Seung-Hyun explained to Insider why he bought stocks for his girlfriend on her birthday instead of flowers. It's a big trend in the country for couples to gift each other "stock gift cards" in companies like Tesla, Apple, Amazon, and Disney. Read: Rest of World is an awesome website reporting on global tech stories, and they're celebrating their first anniversary this week. Check out their pieces on Korean adoptees being brought together by Facebook or fact-checking Modi's India. | |  PublicDomainPictures | US commercial casinos raked in $11.1 billion last quarter, according to the American Gaming Association, matching their best quarter ever. And 12 states set monthly gambling revenue records in March. What happened? If the phrase of the year in 2020 was "in these unprecedented times," 2021 has brought us "pent-up demand." Flush with savings and itching for more excitement than a chessboard can provide, Americans have flocked to casinos to let loose. And both traditional and new-ish sectors of the US gambling industry are seeing the benefits. - Las Vegas is back, if you trust all the lines out the door at McCarran International Airport. Southwest Airlines reported a significant rebound in traffic to Vegas after passenger demand plunged 97% during the pandemic.
- Sports gambling brought in $961 million last quarter, eclipsing the total revenue in 2019.
Zoom out: States home to more than three-quarters of commercial casinos had rules capping occupancy at 50% in Q1, so revenue could boom even more this summer as capacity restrictions ease. On Wednesday, MGM's nine casino floors in Las Vegas got the green light to expand to 100% capacity. | |  Francis Scialabba | The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to keeping an orchid alive for 2+ weeks. It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz. | | - Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid its hackers a $5 million ransom.
- Disney added fewer Disney+ users than expected last quarter.
- Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, is reportedly being investigated by the DOJ and the IRS over potentially illegal activity on its platform.
- The head of the US teachers' union said public schools should fully reopen this fall.
- McDonald's is raising wages for the 36,500 employees of its corporate-owned US restaurants, which make up ~5% of its domestic locations. The restaurant industry is scrambling to retain and hire employees.
- Amazon is hiring 75,000 more employees and offering a $100 signing bonus for fully vaccinated hires.
| | | Better stuff between your buns. At Thrive Market, you can get healthy, delicious foods—like Beyond Meat—delivered straight to your door. Shop Beyond's full product line, along with other organic snacks, safe supplements, and more at Thrive Market. New members get a $20 credit and a free gift when they sign up today.* This is like getting your barista's favorite roast. We're talking about the credit card used by The Ascent's credit card expert, offering the highest cash back rate around. Find out more here.* Follow Friday: Today's picks are for booklovers: Robert.reads on TikTok, Folded Pages Distillery on Instagram, and the always witty SparkNotes on Twitter. Plus, here's a bonus post of absolutely sublime spine design. Really miss the office? (The place, not the show.) If so, we've got the desktop game for you. Learning how to learn: This episode of our podcast Founder's Journal breaks down a four-step process for getting up to speed with any new topic. *This is sponsored advertising content | | | For today's Friday Puzzle let's return to a Fermi problem, which asks you to use logic to estimate a really large number. Here's the question: How many words are there in the seven books of the Harry Potter series combined? | | | When you share the Brew, you earn rewards. From Brew swag like t-shirts and coffee mugs to exclusive content, we've got something for everyone in our rewards program.  Hit the button below to start sharing the Brew. Click to ShareOr copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=8386977e | | | 1,084,170 words. We've read 'em all and then some. | | |
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