| Good morning. Sometimes good things do happen: Carl Nassib, the Raiders player who on Monday became the first active NFL player to come out as gay, has had the top-selling jersey across the Fanatics network for two days straight, per ESPN. | | | |  | Nasdaq | 14,253.27 | | | | | S&P | 4,246.44 | | | | | Dow | 33,945.58 | | | | | Bitcoin | $32,637.13 | | |  | 10-Year | 1.467% | | | | | Peloton | $117.17 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: So far, so good this week. The Nasdaq hit an all-time high thanks to all Big Tech names climbing at least 1%. Bitcoin bungee-jumped down below $30,000, wiping out all its gains for the year, before springing back up in the afternoon. And Peloton gained after launching a corporate program to court B2B clients.
- Politics: Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams opened a wide lead in the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, and Andrew Yang bowed out of the race.
| | | | Yesterday, Tinder announced some of the biggest changes since its 2012 launch to adapt to a pandemic-altered dating landscape. Some new features... - Videos: Tinder is letting users attach up to nine short videos to their profiles.
- Hot Takes: Users can discuss their spiciest opinions before matching, available 6pm to midnight on weekdays.
- Explore: A mode that lets you scan the virtual room before going in and striking up a conversation.
If this all sounds like Tinder attempting to become the next TikTok, you'd be half-right. Gen Z accounts for over 50% of Tinder's user base, and adding videos and opportunities to display an "authentic" self is intended to attract more young adults to the app. But CEO Jim Lanzone stressed that the company isn't trying to become a social media platform for friends. The end goal is still to foster romantic relationships, but with pandemic-era tweaks. Users coming out of Covid "just want to slow things down and get to know people first a lot more before they decide to match, let alone before they decide to go meet someone offline," Lanzone told the BBC. Some dating apps are taking a different approach Bumble, an app known for requiring women to make the first move, is doubling down on its "Bumble BFF" feature to help nurture IRL friendships. Bumble BFF accounted for 9% of the app's monthly active users in September 2020, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Reuters. And Match Group, which owns Tinder, recently acquired a South Korean company, Hyperconnect, that promotes conversations across borders and languages. Bottom line: With lockdowns mostly over, people are turning to dating apps to find new friends, benefits included or not. | | | Yesterday, the Biden administration acknowledged that it'll come up just short of reaching its goal of partially vaccinating 70% of US adults by July 4. If the current pace of vaccinations continues, 67% of adults will have at least one shot of a Covid vaccine by the time the fireworks start, according to the NYT. People around Biden say, "Ehhh, close enough," as they talk up the big rebound in the economy, which is projected by the Fed to grow 7% this year. But the miss reflects significant vaccine hesitancy in the US and the waning power of financial incentives to get people off their couch and into Walgreens. And a major threat looms Covid's hottest variant is delta, a more transmissible strain spreading around the globe that Dr. Fauci called the "greatest threat" to eliminating the pandemic in the US. Vaccines have been shown to protect against delta, but experts are warning of surges in regions with lower vaccination rates—like the South—this fall and winter. Bottom line: Health officials are painting a portrait of "two Americas," one in regions with high immunization rates and the other where they lag. | | | Blackstone is getting back into the rough-and-tumble business of arguing about where to hang the photos. The investment firm is spending $6 billion to acquire Home Partners of America, a rental company with 17k+ properties that gives tenants the opportunity to eventually buy their house. Getting back into? After the 2008 crash, Wall Street firms like Blackstone scooped up foreclosed homes on the cheap. Their investments are credited with helping to stabilize local housing markets and prop up prices. - Blackstone bought tens of thousands of units and rented them out through Invitation Homes, now the US' largest single-family home renter.
But without a crystal ball to predict the pandemic-induced scramble for housing, Blackstone sold Invitation Homes in 2019. Now, the firm (and others) want back in on the soaring housing market, where last month median home prices rose almost 24% annually to break $350k. Big picture: Institutional investors only account for an estimated 2% of single-family rentals. But all-cash offers from Wall Street suits are frustrating some would-be homebuyers who are already up against short supplies, record-high prices, and intense competition. | | | | They can be hard to make. Go hiking or hang out on your couch all weekend? Make some easy brownies or try to make a cheesecake? Buy or sell a stock? Decision TechTM from Fidelity can't solve every quandary in your life, but it can help a whole lot with making smarter trading decisions. You'll get heads-up alerts on market events that could affect your portfolio, like when your roommate texts you that her friends are coming over and might eat all your cheesecake. You'll also get in-the-moment trading insights, as well as $0 commissions for online U.S. stock and ETF trades.1 And, they're committed to getting you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year.* You might have to look elsewhere for tips on cheesecake, but when it comes to making better trading decisions, turn to Fidelity. Learn more about Decision TechTM here. | | | Stat: 5.2 million people around the globe became dollar millionaires last year despite the pandemic, according to a new report from Credit Suisse. 90% of millionaires currently have a net worth of $5 million or less, while 0.4% are worth $50 million or more. Quote: "Very, very unlikely." In testimony before Congress, Fed Chair Jerome Powell dismissed the idea that the economy could experience 1970s-esque hyperinflation. Read: The rise of the $10 million disc golf celebrity. (The Ringer) | | | Giphy | Sure, flight attendants might be trained in handling a drunk bachelorette party or two. But abusive passengers have become so common on flights that on Monday airline groups pleaded with the Justice Department to prosecute the worst cases. Since the beginning of the year, the FAA has received 3,000 reports of unruly passengers—2,300 of whom were people who refused to follow mask requirements. - "It's out of control. It's really coming to the point where we have to defend ourselves," Paul Hartshorn, spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told CNBC.
- In one instance, a passenger was fined $52k for hitting a crew member in the face and trying to open the cockpit door.
No one's 100% sure why people increasingly want to fight someone who hands out Biscoffs, but experts point to entitlement, anxieties from the pandemic, and politicized mask-wearing for the unruly behavior. Big picture: In general, airlines are struggling to accommodate the rebound in demand. American is cutting 1% of July flights and Delta announced plans to hire 1,000 more pilots by next summer. While we're here...Someone needs to take away the FAA's photoshop. | | - GameStop stock jumped after the company raised more than $1 billion in a share sale.
- McDonald's will introduce its first-ever loyalty program nationwide on July 8.
- Warby Parker has confidentially filed for an IPO.
- Nursing home deaths among Medicare patients rose 32% last year, according to a new government report.
- Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize recreational marijuana.
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