Good morning. Scratch that, great morning because the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl  . After dispatching the 49ers, the Birds will square off against the Chiefs, who beat the Bengals in a thrilling game. And for the cherry on top: Unlike the Phillies, the Eagles winning a championship has not been found to be correlated with a recession. —Neal Freyman
| | | |  | Nasdaq | 11,621.71 | | | | | S&P | 4,070.56 | | | | | Dow | 33,978.08 | | |  | 10-Year | 3.512% | | | | | Bitcoin | $23,915.00 | | | | | Meta | $151.74 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 3:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: The contrast between news out of the tech industry and its performance in the market could not be starker. Despite these companies issuing a wave of mass layoffs, recession warnings, and grim earnings results, the tech-focused Nasdaq is on pace to record its best January since 1999. Investors are too busy drooling over the prospect of the Fed slowing down its rate hikes.
| | | | Spencer Platt/Getty Images Thirty years ago yesterday, the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US launched. In the decades since, these once-niche investment products have become ubiquitous on Wall Street, disrupting the mutual fund industry and transforming people's relationship with the stock market. You always remember your first On Jan. 29, 1993, a dumb-looking spider decoration hanging in the American Stock Exchange heralded the arrival of the first US ETF—what's now called the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. It had a measly $6.5 million in assets and no one really paid much attention to it. That's changed. The first US ETF is now the world's biggest, with $375 billion in assets, and the ETF sector in total had amassed $6.5 trillion in assets by the end of 2022. While mutual funds still have 3x the amount of assets that ETFs have, the tide is turning: Investors poured $600 billion into US ETFs on a net basis last year, but pulled out almost $1 trillion from mutual funds. So, how does an ETF work and why have they become so popular? An ETF is simply a security that tracks the performance of a particular basket of investments, like stocks. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, for example, tracks the performance of companies in the S&P 500. Many other ETFs also track indexes, allowing people to park their money in funds that follow the ebbs and flows of the broader market. If that sounds like a mutual fund…it's similar. But ETFs have a few advantages over its stuffy, older cousin. - ETFs generally have lower fees than mutual funds.
- They have built-in tax benefits.
- They're accessible to anyone with a brokerage account—you can buy or sell them like you would a stock.
Zoom out: All these advantages aside, the rise of ETFs has been also fueled by the growing recognition that trying to invest in individual stocks is foolish. Passive index funds, which aren't designed for frequent trading, have surged to represent almost half of US fund assets, compared to less than 2% in the early '90s. | | TOGETHER WITH CARDCRITICS | | …plus a $200 welcome bonus? We're sold. Even better, the cash rewards on this credit card are unrestricted by category, meaning you earn unlimited cash rewards on groceries, gas, travel, entertainment, and your other qualifying purchases, too. Yep, that ridic new gadget that just went viral on social media (you know the one  ) counts. And the perks just keep on comin'. With this card you'll also snag: - super-flexible redemption options
- premium travel perks
And a whole lot more. No wonder the critics love it so much. If you're looking for a cash rewards card to replace allll those other cards, search no more. You just found it. | | Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images  Memphis PD disbands Scorpion unit. Citing "the heinous actions of a few," the city's police department disbanded the Scorpion unit after video of several of its officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols, who died three days later, was released Friday. Scorpion, which stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, was intended to focus on certain high-crime areas of Memphis. Five former officers have been charged with murder in the death of Nichols.
 Air Force general predicts US–China war. In a memo obtained by NBC News, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, wrote that his "gut" tells him that the US will go to war against China in 2025. Why that date? Taiwan's election in 2024, combined with the US' own election that year, will create ripe conditions for Chinese President Xi Jinping to attack Taiwan. President Biden has said several times that the US military would respond if China invaded Taiwan.
 M&M's was just trolling us. Seems like everyone who suspected that M&M's suspension of its candy mascots was just a PR stunt was spot on. The brand told the NYT that its characters will be its "long-term spokescandies" and suggested they'll reappear in an upcoming Super Bowl commercial. Last week, M&M's said it was sending its mascots into retirement over right-wing backlash to their recent outfit changes.
| | Spaceballs/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Authorities are frantically combing the desert in Western Australia to locate a tiny but highly radioactive capsule that was lost in the vast, arid expanse. The capsule seems to have fallen off a truck that was transporting it from a mine in the northern part of Western Australia to a suburb of Perth, the region's largest city. And finding it won't be simple: The route was 870 miles long and the capsule is smaller than a penny. But what it lacks in size, the capsule makes up for in radiation. Containing the radioactive isotope cesium-137, the capsule emits the equivalent of 10 X-rays in an hour. Contact could cause burns, radiation sickness, and skin damage, and prolonged exposure could lead to cancer. So, what's it even used for? Mining companies deploy these capsules as sensors to calculate things like the thickness of pipes. The mining company that managed to lose this capsule, industry giant Rio Tinto, apologized and said it was launching an investigation into the perplexing circumstances of how this tiny object fell off a truck. | | Dianna "Mick" McDougall, Sources: Getty Images A huge week for the economy: Following its first meeting of the year on Wednesday, the Fed is expected to raise interest rates by just 0.25%—a sign that its campaign to slow inflation is working. Also, the January employment report drops on Friday, which is projected to show sustained job growth despite all the layoff headlines. Big Tech earnings: There's an earnings report for everyone this week, whether you're curious about hardware (Apple), retail (Amazon), or saturated fats (McDonald's). Plus, Meta and Alphabet will give us crucial insight into the teetering digital ad market. Close encounters of the green kind: A green comet will return to our neighborhood for its first visit since Neanderthal times—and likely won't come back for millions of years. It could be visible to the naked eye this week in the Northern Hemisphere, though binoculars will certainly help. Everything else… - February, and Black History Month, begin on Wednesday.
- Groundhog Day is on Thursday—and maybe on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday…who knows?
- No football games on Sunday
 (well, there is the revamped Pro Bowl…but that doesn't count). | | | Marketing must-have. After growing to $5b as an industry in 2022, it's safe to say influencer marketing is sticking around for a while. And impact.com has created the ultimate influencer toolkit to help your brand's program thrive. Learn how to leverage 2023's most important influencer marketing trends. | | Stat: Mercedes just notched a major self-driving milestone—it became the first automaker to receive approval for "Level 3" autonomony in the US. That means in Nevada, the only state where its Drive Pilot system has been certified, you can legally play Tetris on the infotainment screen while the car "handles all aspects of the driving task" (at speeds up to 40mph). It's a significant upgrade from Level 2 autonomy, which resembles a souped-up adaptive cruise control and requires you to keep your eyes on the road. Quote: "A calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India." Indian industrial conglomerate Adani Group launched a stinging counterattack on the short seller that accused it of accounting fraud and stock manipulation. In a 413-page rebuttal of those allegations, Adani claimed it did nothing wrong and argued that short seller Hindenburg was the company committing fraud. The conglomerate, which is led by billionaire Gautam Adani, suffered a $50+ billion market wipeout last week due to Hindenburg's report. Read: This is how social media platforms die. (Pluralistic) | | - A suspected Israeli drone strike targeted a military compound in Iran. The attack comes amid heightened concern from Israel and the US over Iran's nuclear development.
- Novak Djokovic cruised to his 10th Australian Open victory with a three-set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam title.
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet with President Biden on Wednesday to discuss resolving the debt ceiling problem.
- Public health officials are raising concerns over a new strain of gonorrhea that evades drugs.
| | Turntable: Do you know how to spell? Great—you'll love our word-finding game, Turntable. Play it here. Only Connect Today's trivia is inspired by Only Connect, a scintillating but wicked UK game show. I'll give you four items and you have to find the link that connects them all. For example, if I wrote: Orange, October, Velvet, and Glorious, you'd correctly answer that they were all revolutions. Got it? Here we go… 1. Pretzels, double-entry bookkeeping, kung fu, genetics 2. Baltimore & Potomac Station, The Temple of Music, Ford's Theatre, Dealey Plaza 3. Socrates, Snow White, Emma Bovary, Erwin Rommel 4. Bowl, cistern, brook, beagle | | Getty Images  Was your New Year's resolution to budget better? Don't let it slide as soon as January is over. Money with Katie's 2023 Wealth Planner will help you stick with healthy financial habits all year long. Shop today.
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| | 1. Things developed by monks. 2. They are all places where US presidents were shot. 3. People who died (or entered a very deep sleep) from poisoning. 4. These words end in names of birds. | | | Written by Neal Freyman Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. Take The Brew to work Get smarter in just 5 minutes Business education without the BS Interested in podcasts? | ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP 10% OFF // FAQ
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