Good morning. Sometimes workplace dreams do come true. In an attempt to "purge" employees' calendars, the e-commerce company Shopify said it's banning recurring meetings with three or more people, limiting big meetings to one per week, and urging staff to turn down other meeting requests. Maybe something to bring up at your next meeting during the 15 seconds of heavy breathing after you ask how everyone's weekend was. —Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, Sam Klebanov, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman | | | |  | Nasdaq | 10,386.98 | | | | | S&P | 3,824.14 | | | | | Dow | 33,136.37 | | | | | 10-Year | 3.745% | | | | | Bitcoin | $16,680.17 | | | | | Apple | $125.07 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Investors are hoping 2023 will be brighter than the abysmal 2022, but they didn't get a lot to cheer about on the year's first trading day. Stocks closed lower, dragged down in part by Apple, whose market value dipped below $2 trillion on its worst day since June 2021.
| | | | Austin Powers/New Line Cinema The newly elected 118th Congress convened for the first time yesterday. Unlike the rest of us, though, lawmakers have the added benefit of getting to vote for who their boss will be. This time around, the process is going—well—historically bad. GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to win his bid to become the speaker of the House yesterday, falling short of the 218 votes needed to secure the position in three voting rounds. While multiple voting rounds for House speaker might sound somewhat ordinary, it's actually an extremely rare event—it's only happened 14 times in US history, with the most recent time (before now) being 100 years ago and the 13 other instances occurring before the Civil War. Why it matters With a narrow majority in the House, the GOP needs to capitalize on these early days by organizing and setting the stage for their agenda leading up to the 2024 general election. But, since the speaker administers the oath of office to House representatives-elect, no business can be done until the position is filled. Also on hold: appointing chairs and members to key committees (delaying the preparation of bills and hearings), adopting new House rules, and voting on legislation (such as raising the nation's debt ceiling to keep the government funded). Coming up…once the dust settles, which hopefully happens faster than it took the 34th Congress to choose a leader in 1856 (133 rounds of voting over a roughly two-month span), the new GOP majority has some plans. Republicans say they want to take on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and probe vaccine mandates and the origins of Covid. They've also pledged to change pandemic-induced rules about proxy voting in the House and scale back the IRS expansion included in the Inflation Reduction Act.—MK | | TOGETHER WITH PRIMAL KITCHEN | | Your salads deserve to be happy. And there's a foolproof way you can resolve to cheer yours up: with delicious salad dressing from Primal Kitchen. Their avocado-oil-based dressings are made from purposeful, high-quality ingredients and packed with flavors to make you and your salad smile with every bite. They've got the classics like Ranch, Balsamic, and Greek, along with fun favorites such as Cilantro Lime. Say goodbye to lackluster salads with dreary dressings and shop for Primal Kitchen at all the major spots, including Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods—or snag 25% off your first online order. | | Michael Kraus/Getty Images 🕹 Union achievement unlocked. Around 300 video game testers at Microsoft's ZeniMax Studios, which counts Fallout among its games, have voted to form a union. Microsoft has formally recognized the union, after having promised labor neutrality over the summer in hopes of getting regulators on board with its bid to purchase Activision. The union is the first ever at Microsoft and the biggest in the video game industry to date.  SBF pleads not guilty. After repeatedly telling news outlets that he had screwed up royally at FTX but never committed fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty yesterday in a New York federal court to the eight charges against him stemming from the crypto exchange's collapse. A judge set a trial date of Oct. 2 and said he would grant SBF's request that the names of the additional guarantors on his $250 million bail stay private, pending motions by the press or others asking that they be released.
🏘 No mortgages for the Canadian-ish. A new law has taken effect in Canada banning foreign buyers from hoovering up homes in the country for the next two years. Politicians who supported the law are hoping the pause on nonresidents purchasing condos will help cool a housing market that at one point last year hit an average home price of $800k (CAD). The Canadian Real Estate Association isn't pleased—it claims the measure could force other countries to retaliate and bar Canadians from buying second homes outside of the country. | | Francis Scialabba Good news for anyone who was busy shorting Tesla instead of making New Year's Eve plans: Tesla's stock plummeted more than 12% yesterday for its worst trading session in more than two years. The proximate cause: Though the EV manufacturer sent out a record 405,278 vehicles in the last quarter of 2022, it missed analyst expectations and its own growth goal for the year. Tesla's brutal selloff was the continuation of a dramatic downward trend: The most valuable automaker in the world lost 65% of its value in 2022. And while it may be easy to pin the blame on CEO Elon Musk's fascination with his shiny new toy, Twitter, the problems go beyond a distracted boss: - Production has slowed down due to Covid shutdowns in China.
- Demand has cooled for its vehicles due to lower gas prices, interest rate hikes, and increased competition.
- It has suffered from logistical issues that were at least partially to blame for its inability to deliver all of the vehicles that it produced.
Tesla has taken steps to boost business, to apparently little effect so far. It recently tried luring lovers of clean-tech luxury with a $7,500 discount in the US. It's also offered price cuts to customers in China.—SK | | Lauri Patterson/Getty Images Turns out a toddler can't tell a Snickerdoodle Haze rice crispy treat from a regular one. Reports of children under the age of six accidentally consuming edibles with marijuana in them have jumped 1,375% between 2017 and 2021, according to a new study in the academic journal Pediatrics. The details: In 2017 there were 207 such cases reported to poison control centers in the US. But by 2021 that jumped to 3,054, bringing the number of incidents over the five-year period to 7,043. Over half of those reports involved toddlers aged two or three. But before you retweet the "pot smokers are giving my kids edibles for Halloween!" stories, know that 91% of the cases stemmed from kids getting the edibles in their own home. Why the spike? Medical professionals say the numbers likely soared as legalization proliferated (37 states + Washington, DC, allow medical marijuana use, and 21 allow recreational use). Plus, some edibles packaging mimics that of non-THC candy or desserts and isn't childproof. Big picture: Cannabis ingestion is still just a sliver of the total 850,000 annual poisonings in the under-six age group, but the rapid growth has doctors worried, especially since THC can cause serious complications for kids. Researchers tracked 5,000 specific cases and found that 8% of the affected kids were put in critical care units at hospitals.—MM | | Office Space/20th Century Studios This Monday, the Brew kicks off our one-week virtual course Difficult Conversations at Work. We cover the ins and outs of handling tricky office scenarios: performance reviews, asking your boss for a raise, encouraging a direct report to speak up in meetings, and much more. You'll walk away with the tools, templates, and hands-on practice you need to tackle your next tricky convo with confidence. There are only a few more days to reserve your spot, and it's only $249. Sign up today. | | Jeff Kowalsky/Getty Images Stat: Ford may have faced major supply chain snarls last year, including running out of its signature blue nameplates, but one problem it didn't have: moving its F-Series pickup trucks. According to sales figures released by the automaker yesterday, the truck was the top-selling vehicle in the US for the 41st year in a row (and the top-selling truck for the 46th). At least one of the trucks sold every 49 seconds in 2022, Ford said. Quote: "We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words, and donations from fans around the country." The family of Damar Hamlin, who remained in critical condition yesterday after going into cardiac arrest on the field during Monday Night Football, expressed their "sincere gratitude for the love and support" shown to the Buffalo Bills player. The NFL said the Bills–Bengals game that was halted after Hamlin collapsed will not resume this week, and no decision has been made yet about whether it will restart later. The league also said it has not yet made any changes to its Week 18 schedule. Read: How China is building its own alternate AI universe. (Tech Crunch) | | - The criminology graduate student accused of killing four Idaho college students agreed to return from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, to Idaho to stand trial. He expects to be "exonerated," according to the public defender who represented him.
- SpaceX, Elon Musk's other other company, is raising $750 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $137 billion.
- The University of California will invest $4 billion in a Blackstone real estate fund that was recently hit with a slew of withdrawal requests.
- Ken Block, the rally driver and DC Shoes co-founder, died in a snowmobile accident in Utah on Monday.
| | Kelp, mocktails, and exotic fruits: Here's what's on the menu for food trends this year. Get your thumbs ready: Check out every video game release slated for 2023. Make money moves: Become a personal finance expert with Money Scoop, the free newsletter that makes you smarter about your money. For the techies: Join the over 450k readers of Emerging Tech Brew, the 3x-a-week newsletter delivering the latest tech news impacting our future. It's free and takes only 5 minutes to read—subscribe here. Crush your New Year's resolutions: Withings Body Comp (aka the most innovative smart scale) tracks your body composition, checks your cardiovascular health, and monitors the health of sweat glands in your feet. Get yours today.* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | Word Search: We go far from the shallow in today's movie musicals Word Search. Play it here. Trivia trivia To celebrate National Trivia Day today, let's do a meta trivia game on game shows. We'll give you the host of a TV game show (doesn't have to be the current one), and you have to name the show. - Art Fleming
- Anne Robinson
- Ben Bailey
- Monty Hall
- Meredith Vieira
| |  After ringing in the New Year, we're taking a look back on the innovations that shaped the last one. Here are the three technologies that hit an inflection point in 2022.
 Alex Lieberman, Jesse Pujji, and Sophia Amoruso know what it's like to be a founder. On The Crazy Ones, they offer unfiltered opinions on how to build a business.
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| | 1. Jeopardy! 2. Weakest Link 3. Cash Cab 4. Let's Make a Deal 5. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | | |
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