|  |  | Good morning. Yesterday, Sweden reported higher-than-expected inflation for May, causing economists to wonder: What could have kept prices elevated? And then it hit them like a ray of sun: Beyoncé. The pop superstar kicked off her Renaissance tour in Stockholm last month, drawing 80,000+ fans to the city's Friends Arena over two nights. In response to the influx of concertgoers, hotels and restaurants raised their prices to such a degree that it boosted overall inflation, Danske Bank concluded. The fact that one person, by the sheer force of her popularity, was responsible for higher inflation in an entire country is…not normal. Danske's chief economist in Sweden, Michael Grahn, said, "It's quite astonishing for a single event. We haven't seen this before." Beyoncé's tour arrives in the US next month. Jerome Powell isn't looking forward to it (he's a Deadhead, anyway). —Molly Liebergall, Cassandra Cassidy, Matty Merritt, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman | | | |  | Nasdaq | 13,626.48 | | | | | S&P | 4,372.59 | | |  | Dow | 33,979.33 | | | | | 10-Year | 3.804% | | | | | Bitcoin | $25,043.70 | | | | | UnitedHealth | $459.86 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Jerome Powell was the market's main character yesterday: As expected, the Fed opted not to raise interest rates for the first time in 15 months, but stocks fell because JPow and Co. also signaled that they're planning two more rate hikes before the end of the year. Powell later managed to turn the tide a bit by reassuring investors that no decisions have been made about a rate hike next month.
- Stock spotlight: UnitedHealth plunged and dragged other health insurance stocks down with it after its CEO said costs were ticking up due to older folks getting procedures they put off during the pandemic.
| | | | Hannah Minn/Morning Brew Pour one out for Bud Light—for the first time in over two decades two decades, the blue-canned beverage is no longer the top-selling beer in the US. Following years of declines and a monthslong boycott that further crushed sales, Bud Light is now second to the gold-foiled Modelo Especial. This shift in the brewski hierarchy has been years in the making: American drinkers have been getting thirstier for Mexican import beers, not to mention wines, spirits, and hard seltzers. Modelo, a Mexican lager, was already on track to surpass Bud Light as early as next year, so the boycott in response to Bud Light's partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney just sped things up, according to the Wall Street Journal. - While Modelo has enjoyed double-digit growth in at least 35 of the past 40 years, Bud Light's dominance over US retail-store beer sales has been sliding for more than a decade. Its market share steadily declined from 19% in 2010 to 10% in the days leading up to Mulvaney's viral Instagram post showcasing a personalized tallboy the company sent her.
- Since Mulvaney's post on April 1, Bud Light's market share dropped sharply and now sits at 7.3%, while Modelo leads with 8.4%, according to the consulting firm Bump Williams. During that same time, shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bud Light's parent company, fell by 15% amid broader S&P 500 gains.
Other AB InBev beers like Budweiser, Busch Light, and Michelob Ultra have also experienced declines since April, and some distributors—many of which are independently owned by families—are now considering layoffs to counter their losses. Seller's remorse? AB InBev actually owns Grupo Modelo—the Mexican brewery that makes Modelo, Corona, and Pacífico—everywhere except the US. Back in 2013, as part of an antitrust deal, AB InBev sold the US rights to Modelo to Constellation Brands, which owns big names like Svedka and Kim Crawford Wines.—ML | | TOGETHER WITH LIQUIDPISTON | Alexander and Nikolay Shkolnik, the MIT grad and physics dad behind LiquidPiston, are delivering the first major innovation to the internal combustion engine in over 100 years. And guess what? They're giving you the chance to become a shareholder. They've patented a new thermodynamic cycle to power a redesigned rotary engine that boasts up to 10x the power of a traditional piston engine. Best of all, the engine is compatible with a variety of fuels, including hydrogen. This could unlock a 100% green energy solution for the combustion engine market. No wonder this (thermo)dynamic duo has secured $30m in contracts from the US Army, the Air Force, and more. Due to the acceleration in funding, this could be your last chance to lock in shares at this price. Invest in LiquidPiston today. | | Francis Scialabba  The EU wants to break up Google's ad tech business. Two years after opening a probe into whether Google unlawfully boosted its own ad tech over others, the EU finally slapped the company with a formal antitrust complaint yesterday, accusing it of abusing its position. The complaint is a doozy; it suggests that Google will likely need to sell off parts of the business to resolve its "inherent conflicts of interest" in digital advertising. Expect a lengthy legal battle: Online ads provided 80% of Alphabet's $280 billion annual revenue last year.
 Former Marine indicted over subway chokehold killing. A grand jury voted to indict Daniel Penny, who was arrested for second-degree manslaughter in May after killing Jordan Neely in a New York City subway car, multiple news outlets reported yesterday. Neely was experiencing homelessness and mental health issues, and a video of Penny putting him in a chokehold sparked protests and calls for prosecution. Penny has maintained that he was defending himself and his fellow passengers, and after several Republican politicians praised him, a legal fund for him raised nearly $3 million.
 UPS drivers get closer to staying cool. It's about to get less sweaty in those iconic brown trucks because UPS has reached a tentative deal with the union representing its drivers to include AC in package delivery vehicles purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. Air con has been a major sticking point in negotiations between the company and the Teamsters, representing 340,000 UPS workers. Union members are expected to authorize a strike if there's no final deal by the time their current contract expires on July 31. A strike would have major economic fallout: UPS estimates that 6% of the US gross domestic product gets transported in its trucks.
| | Harry How/Getty Images The 123rd US Open tees off today at the LA Country Club, providing a rare public look at one of the club's two ultra-private courses that have long been shrouded in mystery. But that's not the only mystery facing the pros who, after the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf announced their controversial merger, don't know what the future holds for their sport. Last year's US Open winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, summed it up on Monday: "It's pretty clear that nobody knows what's going on apart from about four people in the world." In addition to open questions about player compensation and exactly how the rival leagues will work together, the deal is expected to face more scrutiny in Washington than Viktor Hovland's shirt got at the Masters. - Yesterday, Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats, asked the Department of Justice to investigate the merger for potential antitrust violations. They also claimed it would "make a US organization complicit—and force American golfers and their fans to join this complicity—in the Saudi regime's latest attempt to sanitize its abuses."
- Rep. John Garamendi proposed a bill to strip the PGA Tour of its tax-exempt status, echoing an inquiry started by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (both also Democrats).
Meanwhile…PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan, the ringleader of the deal—whose comment that it would "take the competitor off the board" has been highlighted in antitrust discussions—took unexplained medical leave as of yesterday.—CC | | | Boring is sexy. Bid farewell to flashy ideas. Advisor focuses on what works and tailors tried-and-true investment strategies to your personal goals. Gain access to financial planning, investing, tax preparation, equity compensation planning, charitable giving, and more with an actual human advisor. Get started with no investment/AUM minimum. | | Francis Scialabba Check on your friends with high-paying jobs you can't quite explain: They might be the first to be replaced by AI. McKinsey & Co. released a report this week on how generative AI (think ChatGPT and Midjourney) will change the world's workforce. The findings: After examining 2,100 tasks across 850 jobs around the globe, the report concluded that generative AI could add as much as $4.4 trillion worth of value to the global economy. How? By automating tasks and revving up productivity like we've never seen before, especially for workers in customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and research and development fields. The report expects generative AI to take over tasks that take up 60%–70% of people's working hours. In an ideal world, this means more time for the fun parts of your job, or four-day workweeks. But in this world, it could mean your future coworkers are large language models. Big picture: Don't start cleaning out your cubicle—the government is taking steps to start regulating AI. Well, not the US government (yet). The EU voted yesterday to advance draft legislation that would impose some of the first comprehensive rules on artificial intelligence.—MM | | Max Park via Twitter Stat: When most of us put down a Rubik's Cube after 3 seconds, it's because we're moving on to something we can actually achieve. But not speedcuber Max Park, who set a new world record by solving one in just 3.13 seconds. His impressive time unseats the previous 3.47-second record for a 3x3x3 cube set in 2018…which is still much faster than we could ever get those squares to match up without resorting to pulling the stickers off. Watch a breakdown of how Park did it here. Quote: "The whole community loses out on something special if the A's leave." Fans of the Oakland (but maybe not for much longer) A's staged a "reverse boycott" at Tuesday night's game, filling up the Coliseum to protest the team owners' efforts to relocate to Las Vegas. Enthusiastic fans donned green T-shirts with the word "Sell" and chanted "Sell the team" as the A's beat the Tampa Bay Rays. The protest's organizer, A's fan Stu Clary, told local radio station KNBR: "The grass could be greener somewhere else and so, if it can happen to us, it can happen to you, it can happen to anybody." Read: Beatrix Potter, the unlikely hero of the anti-hustle culture movement. (Vox) | | - Twitter got sued by music publishers claiming 1,700 copyrighted songs are widely available on the platform. The suit seeks $250+ million in damages.
- A jury awarded $25.6 million to an ex-Starbucks regional manager who claimed she was fired for being white in the aftermath of the arrest of two Black men at a Philadelphia location.
- Diablo IV scored more than $666 million in global sales in just five days. Activision Blizzard revealed the news about the game becoming the fastest selling ever for its Blizzard subsidiary one day after a judge temporarily blocked Microsoft's planned purchase of the company.
- The Southern Baptist Convention refused to allow a pair of congregations with women pastors back into the fold, including the California megachurch Saddleback Church.
- Netflix wants to get you off your couch for a change: It's opening a pop-up restaurant in LA with chefs from hits like Nailed It! and Chef's Table.
| |  Postcard from Mars: The rover Curiosity beamed back a stunner.
Know your own mind: Watch this condensed evolutionary history of the human brain. Like a virgin performer: Listen to a demo Madonna recorded as part of a pop-punk band before she hit it big. Young Sheldon, IRL: Meet the 14-year-old who just graduated college and got hired by Elon Musk. Healthy mindset: Looking to impress your healthcare peers? Subscribe to Healthcare Brew and keep your finger on the pulse of the latest news and trends. Get organized (template included):  Organize all your projects across Notion, GDocs, Word, and more with this template + instructional course. 16k+ downloads. Free for Brew readers (72 hours only).* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | Brew Mini: If Saturday's full crosswords are too intimidating but Tuesday's bite-sized puzzles are over too quickly, try Thursday's beefed-up Mini. It might hit the sweet spot. Three Headlines and a Lie Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than the time limit you had to snag a late-night infomercial Betty Crocker cake pan deal in the 2000s. Can you spot the odd one out? - Cannibalistic bugs are wreaking havoc on Nevada's roads
- Celeb's poorly rated NYC restaurant that served $99 milkshakes closes
- Woman who was declared dead revives during her wake, bangs on coffin in Ecuador
- Lantern flies are back and they are eating concrete
| |  Move over, FarmVille—now there's FarmVibes. Microsoft is growing into agriculture with AI- and data-driven solutions for farmers. Find out why here.
🛒 Don't miss out on Retail Brew's chat with JCPenney's chief customer officer. See how the company is nailing shopper expectations. Register today. 🩺 We're reimagining what a healthcare system should be like, with people at the center. Join Healthcare Brew for a virtual event on June 27. Details here. | | | We made up the lantern fly one. | | |
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