| Good morning, especially to the early risers watching Simone Biles return to Olympics competition on the balance beam, which began at 4:50am ET. Woke up at a normal hour and missed it? No worries—NBC is airing the event tonight in primetime. Dare you to try and go the whole day without finding out the results. | | | |  | Nasdaq | 14,681.07 | | |  | S&P | 4,387.16 | | | | | Dow | 34,838.16 | | | | | Bitcoin | $38,967.52 | | | | | 10-Year | 1.178% | | | | | Square | $272.38 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Bond yields fell yesterday, which may indicate hesitancy on Wall Street toward future economic growth. Investors did give a standing O to Square, which on Sunday announced a $29 billion acquisition of Australian buy now, pay later firm Afterpay.
- Economy: For the first time in months, supply chain bottlenecks are easing, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management. As the economy's opened up, Americans are spending more money on services than goods, putting less pressure on producers.
- Covid: 70% of US adults are now at least partially vaccinated, a threshold the Biden administration hoped to achieve about a month ago.
| | | Giphy | With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading across the globe, more countries are making plans to offer vulnerable residents an extra layer of vaccine protection. Germany said yesterday it would offer Covid-19 booster shots to older people and those with underlying health conditions starting in September. Other governments have made similar moves: - Israel began giving a booster shot to people over 60 this past weekend.
- Britain will begin offering a booster of a Covid vaccine starting in September, the Telegraph reported.
- Bahrain is giving Pfizer boosters to some people who received China's Sinopharm vaccine.
What about the US? There's no clear roadmap, but momentum is building to offer some Americans a booster shot. - Dr. Amanda Cohn of the CDC's immunization division said that officials were "actively looking into ways" to give people access to booster shots "earlier than any potential regulatory decisions."
- Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb told CNBC, "My guess is sometime by September or October we will be giving booster shots to older individuals and certainly immunocompromised." We should note: Gottlieb is on the Pfizer board.
Is there any evidence that they're needed? Pfizer and BioNTech released a study (not yet peer-reviewed) that showed their vaccine's effectiveness drops from 95% to 84% after about six months. Pfizer suggested a third shot would help bolster immunity in vulnerable populations as the Delta variant spreads. - Some experts aren't convinced. "I would say right now, there is not evidence that we need to go ahead with boosters in the United States, but that's an ongoing debate," NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said on GMA.
One thing is clear: There's a lot of $$$ in boosters. Pfizer forecasted $33.5 billion in Covid vaccine sales this year, a 29% bump from previous estimates, in anticipation of selling a third dose. It plans to ask for regulatory approval in the US for a booster shot this month. Bottom line: When asked about the need for boosters, the medical community repeatedly offers up a big shrug. But given concerns about decreasing vaccine effectiveness against Delta, it sure looks like they may make an appearance for certain populations in the US by the fall. | | | Grey's Anatomy | Peer pressure works. Goldman Sachs joined other Wall Street banks and bumped the salary for its first-year analysts to $110k, an increase of nearly 30%. The move comes weeks after Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan also boosted starting salaries to $100k for junior analysts. The backstory: In March, an internal survey of Goldman analysts revealed they worked 100-hour weeks in a pressure cooker environment. Those young employees warned there was only a 35% chance they'd continue at the firm longer than six months unless working conditions improved. - CEO David Solomon responded by saying the bank would hire more analysts, automate what could be automated, and enforce a no-work-on-Saturdays rule.
- But as other banks hiked salaries and offered perks like free Pelotons, Goldman felt like it had no choice but to one-up its rivals.
Bottom line: Like in many industries, investment banking firms are desperate to fill open roles and, as a result, have raised salaries. Your friends graduating from business school are finding themselves at the center of a very lucrative bidding war. | | | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | America's infrastructure system, which scored a C- this year, is going to summer school. The Senate is expected to pass an infrastructure bill this week that will provide a much-needed upgrade to the US' bumpy roads, glitchy internet, and 100-year-old water pipes. By the numbers: The deal calls for more than $550 billion in new spending, including… - $110 billion for roads and bridges
- $73 billion to modernize the nation's energy grid
- $66 billion for rail and Amtrak
- $65 billion for broadband expansion
- $55 billion to improve the country's drinking water
- $39 billion for transit
Virtually no part of the US economy is untouched by the plan. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it's been decades since Congress passed "such a significant, stand-alone investment." Who's paying for it? Is a tax hike on the horizon? Nope. The White House said the money will come from reclaiming unused Covid aid funds, collecting unpaid taxes on cryptocurrency investments, and selling billions of dollars worth of oil from reserves. Zoom out: Corporate winners include Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and airlines, while losers are the crypto industry and electric vehicle companies, which received significantly less funding than initial plans showed. | | | Amazon Studios | Stat: After years of speculation, Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series finally has a release date—September 2, 2022, just in time for the Theta wave. With a first season that will cost $465 million, it's the most expensive television show of all time. Quote: "I am very glad I was vaccinated because without vaccination I am certain I would not feel as well as I do now." Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, revealed that he tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Graham is the first "breakthrough" case in the Senate. Read: Who actually gets to create Black pop culture? (Current Affairs) | | | Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images | Reese Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, has been sold for an estimated $900 million to a new, unnamed media firm with lots of big names attached to it. Two former Disney execs, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, are the fearless leaders, and it's backed by private equity giant Blackstone. - Their goal: scoop up smaller, high-quality content companies like Witherspoon's and monetize through distribution partnerships and commerce.
The backstory: Reese Witherspoon, the only actress with the range to play both Elle Woods and June Carter Cash, founded Hello Sunshine in 2016, and went on to produce some mega TV hits like Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, and Big Little Lies. Witherspoon told the WSJ that her company's success shows that viewers crave more stories centered on women. Looking ahead...Blackstone is bankrolling the media venture with $2 billion, so Mayer and Staggs are on the hunt for other acquisitions. One potential target: LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill production company. | | - A US labor board official recommended a re-run vote in an Amazon union election in Alabama, an effort that failed back in April.
- The Biden administration said the CDC was powerless to extend the eviction moratorium that expired on Saturday, and urged state and local jurisdictions to help renters from getting kicked out.
- Equinox and SoulCycle will require members to show proof of vaccination starting in September.
- Google teased its new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones.
Olympics links - Poland granted a humanitarian visa to Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who had been pressured to return to Belarus after criticizing team officials.
- US women's soccer lost 1-0 to Canada in the semifinal and will play Australia for the bronze medal.
- Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weightlifter, became the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Olympics.
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