Good morning. Presidents Day is on Monday, but unlike July Fourth or Thanksgiving, there's not really a specific tradition or ritual tied to it. In the hopes of making Presidents Day great again, here are a few ideas: - Make promises but break 'em tomorrow
- Chisel your face into the side of a mountain
- Make your WFH space round
—Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, Jamie Wilde | | | |  | Nasdaq | 13,548.07 | | | | | S&P | 4,348.87 | | | | | Dow | 34,079.18 | | | | | 10-Year | 1.928% | | | | | Bitcoin | $39,849.72 | | | | | DraftKings | $17.29 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: The US stock indexes stumbled to their second weekly loss in a row due to continuing geopolitical turmoil. DraftKings investors aren't worried about Ukraine—they're concerned about the sports betting company's widening losses even as the Super Bowl represented a coming out party for the industry.
- Ukraine: President Biden said yesterday that he's "convinced" Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine, and once again stated it could be a matter of days until Putin makes that move.
| | Arrested Development/Fox via Giphy Companies that thought they had taken the Limitless drug during the height of the pandemic are beginning to realize it was just a placebo. Roku plunged 22% in its worst trading day since 2018, as investors punished the streaming service for disappointing Q4 numbers and a gloomier-than-expected outlook for the current quarter. - After a nearly 150% rise in 2020, shares are now down more than 75% from their July 2021 peak.
Roku is one of many companies whose epic rise in 2020 has been overshadowed by an equally epic collapse in the last year: - Shopify, which represented the Covid e-commerce boom, is down 62% from its peak.
- Roblox, which represented the Covid gaming boom, is down 63%.
- Netflix, which represented the Covid streaming boom, is down 43%.
One might even suggest that the companies billed as pandemic winners are not only not winners, they are also losers. Their conviction that consumer behavior would be forever changed by Covid led them to make poor decisions that dented future prospects. Not to pick on Peloton, but let's pick on Peloton. In May 2021, the company announced plans to build a $400 million factory in Ohio to fill the insatiable appetite for at-home workout equipment. 2,800 job cuts, an 82% stock plunge, and one CEO later, it decided to scrap that idea. "To meet market demand we scaled our operations too rapidly and we overinvested in some areas of our business," former boss John Foley said on his way out. But it's not just consumer behaviors that reverted back to normal. These growth stocks also benefited from an era of super-low interest rates from the Fed—which is all but certain to evaporate this year due to soaring inflation. Looking ahead…many of these companies still have their believers, such as Ark Invest's Cathie Wood, who argue innovative tech firms are stuck in a temporary rough patch before they realize their long-term potential. Just "give us five years," Wood said this week.—NF | | Marinha Portuguesa  Is your Porsche in flames? A 60,000-ton cargo ship was floating adrift off the coast of Faial in the Azores yesterday after a fire forced its 22 crew members to evacuate. The ship is carrying an estimated 4,000 cars from the Volkswagen Group, including 189 Bentleys and 1,100 Porsches. It was supposed to arrive in Rhode Island on Wednesday, but we suppose it will be a minute.
 Grown-ups slammed for Olympics mess. IOC President Thomas Bach lambasted the adults around Kamila Valieva after the 15-year-old figure skater who failed a doping test tumbled to a fourth-place finish Thursday. He said he was "very, very disturbed" to see a visibly upset Valieva being scolded by her coach following her routine. NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico also delivered pointed criticism, saying the adults in the room "failed to protect" Valieva during this whole ordeal.
 Guac hoarding was too much work anyways. Mexican avocado imports to the US can resume, officials said yesterday. The weeklong interruption began after the USDA said one of its safety inspectors was threatened over the phone (a Washington Post source said the inspector had found an illegal shipment). Over 90% of US avocados came from Mexico last year, so the fruit could have experienced a serious price jump if the ban lasted longer—and its price is already at record highs.
| | Bravo/NBCUniversal Stock trading at the top just got a lot more paperwork. The Fed approved rules yesterday that ban regional bank presidents and other senior Fed officials from trading individual stocks, bonds, and crypto. - The details: The 12 regional bank presidents and seven governors on the central bank's board can still trade securities such as mutual funds, but they'll have to give a 30-day notice before doing so (this notice was already required for governors).
The rule change comes in response to a stock trading controversy that's dented the Fed's reputation. Three central bank officials who traded individual stocks early in the pandemic retired early last year. Fed officials aren't the only government bigwigs being forced to change their investing habits. The Senate unanimously approved legislation yesterday that would make federal judges (including SCOTUS justices) provide information about their stock trades and annual disclosure reports within 90 days. Last year, 130+ judges broke the law by hearing cases that conflicted with their financial interests, according to the WSJ.—MM | | | Teamwork does, in fact, make the dream work. But that dream can morph into a nightmare if your team's efforts are out of sync and people seem disengaged. With MURAL, you can add an online whiteboard to your next meeting, purpose-built to increase collaboration, transform teamwork, and make meetings more inclusive. Plus, MURAL works with Slack, Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams to make it easy to turn ideas into action from anywhere—ideal for hybrid workplaces. Best of all, it's free. And don't sweat it if you're not the Van Gogh of design and presentations—creating engaging, structured meetings and workshops is simple thanks to MURAL's 300+ templates and intuitive features. So Van Gogh get 'em. Start a FREE whiteboard here. | | Photo Illustration: Dianna "Mick" McDougall; Source: Kevin Mazur via Getty Images Kanye West is exclusively releasing his next album, Donda 2, on a little device called a Stem Player, the artist revealed on Instagram yesterday. Not Spotify, not Apple Music, not Hit Clips, just…Stem Player. - The $200 device, which West and Kano Computing co-developed last year, is essentially a revved-up MP3 player that allows you to split songs into "stems" of drums, bass, vocals, etc., and layer on effects.
The unusual move is intended to, per Ye, "free music from this oppressive system" in which "artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes." It's the latest time West has called out labels and platforms for leaving artists crumbs of the earnings pie. - Two years ago, he tweeted screenshots of his contract with Universal Music Group, and critiqued it as "a contract formula for vinyl," not the digital age.
Zoom out: West isn't the only artist fighting to tilt the music industry more in artists' favor. His BFF Taylor Swift, for one, duked it out with Big Machine Records for her masters and ultimately started re-recording them.—JW | | Leon Neal/Getty Images Stat: As many as 230,000 people tuned into a YouTube channel that showed planes attempting to land at London's Heathrow Airport yesterday. What made the stream so thrilling was that pilots were contending with historically intense winds generated by Eunice, one of the worst storms the UK has experienced in three decades. The colorful commentary also didn't hurt. Quote: "Summer 2022 will be the busiest travel season ever." Expedia CEO Peter Kern told Bloomberg that despite higher prices, "I think people are willing to pay whatever the hell it takes to get away and go to a place they want to go." (Can confirm.) As a travel CEO, he has certain reasons to be bullish on the sector, but the data backs him up: US travel and tourism is expected to jump by 6.2% over pre-pandemic levels this year, per the World Travel & Tourism Council. Read: A child's TikTok stardom opens doors. Then a gunman arrives. (New York Times) | | - Canadian police said they made progress in clearing out protesters from downtown Ottawa. They arrested at least 70 people.
- Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya is stepping down as chair of Virgin Galactic, a firm he took public via SPAC in 2019.
- Sports update: MLB is postponing the beginning of spring training through at least March 5 due to the lockout, and the College Football Playoff will remain at four teams until at least the 2026 season.
- Bill Gates told CNBC that the risk of developing severe disease from Covid has been "dramatically reduced," but also said another pandemic is sure to arrive at some point.
| | The power of the ping. Slack's capabilities help workplace communication feel organic, more seamless, and frankly, less jargon-filled. And according to Slack's survey of 2,000 remote and hybrid workers, informal communication can also boost productivity. Read key survey findings here.* Fitness isn't one-size-fits-all. Which is why Future adds a human touch to digital fitness coaching, pairing you one-on-one with your very own trainer. Get unlimited support and personalized workouts so you can fit fitness into your sched'. Pick your coach here.* Oldie but goodie TEDx Talk: What animals are thinking and feeling, and why it should matter. Weekend conversation starters: *This is sponsored advertising content | | | You've been practicing all week for this: the full 15x15 Saturday crossword. Play it here. | | | Written by Neal Freyman, Jamie Wilde, and Matty Merritt Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → - Emerging Tech Brew: AI, crypto, space, autonomous vehicles, and more
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