☕ Major overhaul

What Americans are doing instead of investing... August 19, 2024 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Indeed]( Good morning. It might sound crazy but…tons of people are rediscovering the epicness of “Bye Bye Bye.” The *NSYNC hit single from 2000 is enjoying a renaissance after being featured in Deadpool & Wolverine. According to the music industry newsletter Stat of the Week, the song climbed into the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart, the official music video has added nearly 9 million views on YouTube, and the man band’s monthly listeners on Spotify have jumped 76%. Of course, all this popularity comes with an asterisk… —Neal Freyman, Dave Lozo MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE Nasdaq $17,631.72 +19.41% S&P $5,554.25 +17.11% Dow $40,659.76 +7.81% 10-Year 3.892% -5.4 bps Bitcoin $59,745.36 +41.36% Oil $76.60 +8.84% Data is provided by *Stock data as of market close. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: The “stocks only go up” rallying cry has returned to Wall Street following a flurry of solid economic reports and the S&P 500’s [best week of the year](. Even the worry warts at Goldman Sachs lowered their recession probability for next year on account of strong consumer spending. Thanks to the recent pop, the S&P is now just 2% below its record high.  REAL ESTATE [Buying a home is going through changes]( [House for sale]( Northcut/Getty Images Sweeping changes have come to the complicated and expensive process of buying a house in the US, with the goal of making it slightly less complicated and expensive. On Saturday, a class-action settlement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) [went into effect]( ripping up the playbook on how real estate agents are compensated. The NAR was accused of artificially inflating commission rates, which have historically ranged from 5% to 6%, a [higher fee]( than the rest of the world. Consumer advocates hope the new rules will lead to lower commissions, shift power away from agents, and add transparency into what’s been an opaque system. How it worked before Saturday The 5%–6% fee was shouldered by the home seller and split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent. So, for a home that sold for $450,000, the seller would need to [cough up $27,000]( in fees for both brokers, per CNN. How it works now The most immediate change for anyone buying a home: You will have to sign a written contract with the agent representing you before they show you a house. That means the type of compensation your agent will receive is up to you and them to negotiate—it could be a commission as low as 1.5%, say, or a flat fee. Because many buyers are new to negotiating with brokers and could be taken advantage of, consumer groups have created [draft]( [templates]( to simplify the process. On the seller’s side, they still have the option to cover the commission of the buyer’s broker, which may lead to more and better offers. What will happen next? Housing experts say that if commission rates decrease due to the new rules, they’ll do so gradually and not suddenly (and they’ve already been creeping lower since the settlement was reached in March). Meanwhile, this new dog-eat-dog system for brokers could push many of the “mediocre” ones to [leave the industry]( while the highest-performing agents will still get their bag, Axios reports. One more thing: If you’ve sold a property in the last five years, you could be entitled to a slice of the settlement. [See if you’re eligible here]( PRESENTED BY INDEED [The world can work better]( [Indeed]( Want to shape the future of work? Indeed FutureWorks is where you learn how. In one action-packed day, you’ll be inspired by leading-edge product demos, interactive breakouts, and exclusive first-time interviews—including a session with Grammy-nominated comedian and best-selling author Trevor Noah. Discover how better hiring leads to better work—and, ultimately, better lives. [Your free virtual ticket]( grants you access to: - new AI tools designed to help you meet the challenges of today and tomorrow - actionable, tangible takeaways to help you elevate your hiring - info on how to apply skills-first hiring to reach and retain untapped talent pools Beef up your hiring skills. [Get your free virtual ticket](. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [Two boxing gloves, one with the X logo and one with the flag of Brazil]Francis Scialabba X closes operations in Brazil. Escalating a long-standing dispute, X CEO Elon Musk claimed Brazilian Judge Alexandre de Moraes secretly threatened one of X’s legal reps with arrest if it didn’t comply with orders to take down content from its platform, prompting Musk’s [decision]( on Saturday to close up shop in the country. Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts as part of an investigation into “digital militias” accused of disseminating fake news and hate messages during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Musk called the decision “unconstitutional,” but X eventually said it would comply with the orders. X remains available in the country, so the people of Brazil are still free to use Grok to create AI images of Shrek blowing smoke rings in the face of Donkey. Disney is carrying the summer box office. Alien: Romulus [unseated]( billion-dollar juggernaut Deadpool & Wolverine as the top movie in North America with an opening weekend haul of $41.5 million, which is great news for Disney since they are both made by Disney. Thanks to the success of these two films alongside Inside Out 2 ($1.6 billion worldwide) and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($397 million worldwide), Disney has grabbed 42% of summer box-office ticket sales in the US and Canada, according to Box Office Mojo. Last summer, Disney’s market share was just 27% and its moviemaking business was nearing crisis mode. Hurricane Debby dropped ~$1.6 million of cocaine on Florida’s beaches. While that amount won’t impress regular viewers of HBO’s Industry, authorities felt it was large enough to [report]( on social media. The US Customs and Border Patrol in Miami said it recovered 25 packages of cocaine worth ~$1 million on a beach in Islamorada, a village in the Florida Keys about 80 miles from Key West, on Aug. 4. A week later, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office found another $625,000 worth of cocaine floating near Everglades City. While the origins of the cocaine are unknown, smugglers have been known to ditch their packages in the water when their vessels encounter mechanical failures or law enforcement. GAMBLING [People are replacing investments with sports bets]( [Meme depicting Americans betting on sports instead of investing]( That losing 10-leg NFL parlay is coming at the expense of investments in the stock market, new research shows. According to a July [working paper]( bears and bulls have become more inclined to bet on the Bears and Bulls since wagering on your phone was legalized in most states in the past six years. For every dollar put toward a sports bet, a household’s net investments drop by $2, the study found. Siphoning money away from sound investments and toward what’s meant to be an entertainment product [raises more concerns]( about the impact of online betting on personal finances. - Since the Supreme Court overturned a federal law prohibiting sports betting in 2018, 38 states have legalized it. Americans spent $14 billion on sports wagers in January 2024, up from $1.1 billion in January 2019. - Some of that is money not going into a Schwab account. Researchers found that in the two to three years that followed the legalization of sports betting in a state, net investments dropped 14%. People in monetary distress are particularly susceptible. The study says financially constrained households are diverting more funds from stock portfolios to sports bets than others, perhaps looking for a get-rich-quick solution that doesn’t involve Roaring Kitty. “This finding underscores the potential for sports betting legalization to exacerbate financial vulnerability and hardship,” according to the authors.—DL TOGETHER WITH MOTIVOSITY [Motivosity]( The race to recognition. Don’t mean to get you riled up, but other companies are getting ahead. How? They’re showing their teams a li’l TLC. That’s why you need [Motivosity]( a people-first recognition and rewards solution with a proven track record of success—companies that use it see a 36% lower turnover rate. [Catch up](. STAT [Prime number: Good luck getting into Northeastern](#) [Students walk Northeastern University campus on September 14, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts]Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Northeastern, the university whose archrival is somehow not Northwestern, has reached Ivy League admission rates. The Boston school accepted a mere [5.6% of applicants]( last year, down from 32% a decade ago, per the Wall Street Journal. Why has it become so hard to get into Northeastern? Because of surging interest in the university’s “co-op” programs, which allow students to get up to 18 months of full-time paid work experience in addition to classes. These jobs aren’t the usual gigs at restaurants or the campus bookstore—employer partners include Google, Tesla, and local hospitals. The strategy aims to produce career-ready graduates, and that appears to be working: According to Northeastern, 95% of students reported being employed full time or in graduate school within nine months of graduation. CALENDAR [The week ahead](#) [The United Center ahead of the DNC]Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The DNC begins today in Chicago: At their national convention, Democrats will try to do what the Chicago Bulls have failed to accomplish since 1998—use the United Center as a springboard for a trip to the White House. [President Biden]( and Hillary Clinton will speak tonight, Barack Obama takes the stage on Tuesday, and in the finale on Thursday, Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic nomination and outline her platform to a national audience. Chicago is preparing for [thousands of protesters]( demonstrating against the war in Gaza, in support of abortion rights, and other social issues. Powell to speak in Jackson Hole, WY: Later this week, central bankers will meet in the shadow of the Tetons for the Jackson Hole Symposium, an annual retreat for global economic officials to talk monetary policy and knock back a few whiskeys at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. The main event: Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s keynote speech on Friday, which investors hope will clarify the timing and pace of interest rate cuts. Everything else… - Negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza will resume this week in Cairo. In an attempt to push an agreement across the finish line, Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel yesterday and will travel to Egypt on Tuesday. - College football is back this Saturday with Week 0, the soft opening of the season before the full slate of games the following week. - Burning Man, which had sold out every year since 2011 before this year, starts on Sunday. NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [George Santos]( the former congressman and current Cameo star, is expected to plead guilty to federal fraud charges stemming from his 2022 midterm campaign today. - [Perdue]( recalled more than 167,000 pounds of frozen chicken nuggets and tenders due to possible metal contamination. Magneto could have solved this very quickly if asked. - [Warlord ​​Ramzan Kadyrov]( the president of Chechnya, posted a video showing how he mounted a machine gun to his Tesla Cybertruck and invited Elon Musk to Russia. - [The Onion]( is going back into print after more than a decade. - [ICYMI]( Our deep dive into state fairs in yesterday’s newsletter. RECS [Monday to-do list image] Eat: The [best sandwich]( in every state, allegedly. Gaze: Look into the eyes of a stranger with [Eyechat](. Read: Nate Silver’s well-reviewed new book about [mastering risk](. Watch: How they [calculate the number of calories]( in your food. Style on sale: Shop the Cuts Anniversary Sale + [get 30% off sitewide](. Find comfy basics, fashion-forward styles, and more—all for [30% off]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Turntable: The “GHT” letter combo could be fruitful for racking up your score in today’s Turntable. [Play it here](. Clockwise or counterclockwise? We’ll give you something that spins or rotates, and you have to say whether it goes clockwise or counterclockwise. - The Earth - The Kentucky Derby - Dealing cards for a game (in North America) - Tightening most screws or nuts - Hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere - Carousels in North America SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a905682a]( ANSWER - Counterclockwise (same for most other planets) - Counterclockwise - Clockwise - Clockwise - Counterclockwise (because of the [Coriolis Effect]( - Counterclockwise Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: opaque, meaning “not letting light get through.” Thanks to Bruce from Lexington, KY, for suggesting a word that is also fun to say out loud. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. Written by [Neal Freyman]( and Dave Lozo Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. 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