☕ Push for plants

Key economic data releases before the election... [Advertisement] October 30, 2024 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( presented by [Elf Labs]( Good morning. Down for a little weather small talk? Because here in the Northeast it has been astoundingly sunny this fall. New York City just went 29 consecutive days without measurable rainfall—the second-longest streak on record—before yesterday, when a passing shower dropped 0.01 inches of rain on Central Park. And that was canceled out by the Yankees finally winning a game in the World Series last night. —Matty Merritt, Sam Klebanov, Cassandra Cassidy, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 18,712.75 +0.78% S&P 5,832.92 +0.16% Dow 42,233.05 -0.37% 10-Year 4.274% +0.0 bps Bitcoin $72,024.62 +3.70% JetBlue $6.07 -17.08% Data is provided by *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: The Nasdaq pulled a Joey Chestnut and broke its own record again, closing at another [all-time high]( as stocks moved up on the day’s tech earnings. But JetBlue took a nosedive after it forecast worse-than-expected revenue.  ECONOMY [The state of the US economy before the election]( [Graphic of a chart going up in the colors of the American flag]( Parsons Voters say their most important issue in this presidential election is the economy, and with less than a week until Election Day, they are about to be given a lot of homework. There will be a rush of economic reports dropping before November 5, and you’re about to see a lot of data condensed and stripped of context for headlines and speeches. As if there wasn’t enough chaos, the Boeing strike and aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton will likely muddle some of the data. In the final stretch of automated texts asking for $20, here’s an economy vibe check: What we know already. Two new reports released yesterday seemed to signal a positive-but-cooling labor market. The Conference Board [said]( its consumer confidence index rose 9.5 points to 108.7, the biggest jump since 2021. That number is still below pre-pandemic levels, but the number of consumers who expect a recession within the next year dropped to its lowest level since the survey started asking the question in July of 2022. The Labor Department also released the [JOLTS report]( yesterday, showing that last month had the lowest number of job openings in more than three years. What’s still ahead? The US government will release its first estimate of last quarter’s GDP growth today, which is expected to be a healthy 3%, according to a Bloomberg survey. A report on Thursday measuring personal consumption expenditures is expected to show inflation dropping to 2.1% in September, tantalizingly close to the Fed’s 2% goal. The big one on Friday: October’s jobs report will offer a blurry look at the labor market, with an expected 4.1% unemployment rate (the lowest preelection unemployment rate in 24 years) but a sluggish job growth rate because of the strike and hurricanes. Bottom line: It’s hard to say whether the deluge of percentage point changes will make a difference to voters, especially in this tight election. [Gas prices]( which presidents have little control over, are nonetheless near a three-year low.—MM presented by Elf Labs [Midnight deadline: Claim your share of $2t magic!]( [Elf Labs]( Don’t let the clock strike midnight on your chance to invest in Elf Labs. You have until midnight to [become an Elf Labs shareholder]( and you don’t even need a fairy godmother. Elf Labs owns 100+ trademarks and 400+ international copyrights, including rights to [Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and the Little Mermaid](. For Disney, princesses like these have generated over $46.4b in revenue alone. It’s a huge $2t entertainment and licensing market opportunity for Elf Labs—they’re already signing global licensing deals with major players. But the real story is their patented technology. Elf Labs is combining AR, VR, and AI to bring these characters to life like never before. [Invest in Elf Labs by tonight at 11:59pm](. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [Chase ATMs]Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images JPMorgan is suing customers over “infinite money glitch.” It turns out that banks don’t just let people steal money from ATMs. JPMorgan [filed lawsuits]( in three federal courts against customers who allegedly took thousands of dollars from machines by depositing bad checks and withdrawing funds in an illegal loophole that went viral on TikTok earlier this year. One Houston, TX, man owes JPMorgan nearly $300,000, the bank said. Though the suits are civil, JPMorgan has referred cases to law enforcement and is still investigating thousands of other incidents across the US. The bank wants the stolen funds returned with interest. Google weathered a bumpy quarter to beat earnings estimates. Google parent Alphabet reported Q3 earnings yesterday, [besting analyst forecasts]( with over $88 billion in revenue, which sent the stock up in after-hours trading. Google’s third quarter was full of challenges: It restructured teams to optimize for the AI race and faced multiple antitrust lawsuits, one of which found the company guilty of being an illegal search monopoly. But the tech giant appears no worse for wear thanks to increases in Cloud and YouTube ad revenue. In other earnings news, Chipotle missed expectations in its first report since CEO Brian Niccol defected to Starbucks. TGI Fridays closed dozens of stores ahead of rumored bankruptcy. Like many chain restaurants, the spot where your entire high school would get dinner before going to the movies on a Friday night is having a tough go of it. TGI Fridays [abruptly closed]( ~50 locations this week, CNN reported, as the casual chain known for its endless apps reportedly weighs bankruptcy. Fridays had 270 locations in the US at the beginning of the year but is down to 164 today amid competition from lower-cost restaurants and a mounting pile of debt. Red Lobster, Buca di Beppo, and other formerly popular casual dining chains have already filed for bankruptcy this year as consumers shift their spending habits to save money.—AE SOCIAL MEDIA [X is force-feeding political content to users]( [X political accounts]( Zawrzel/Getty Images X is behaving like someone three drinks in at dinner with the inlaws: simply incapable of avoiding political talk. The Elon Musk-owned social platform showed a [constant stream]( of political content to new users who chose nonpolitical interests when registering on the app, according to an experiment the Wall Street Journal ran this month. Apolitical? What’s that? The newspaper set up 14 accounts on X with chosen interests like “travel” and “crafts” that have nothing to do with partisan sparring and then used AI to analyze the content they encountered while scrolling on the For You Page: - While less than a third of posts the algorithm showed were political, they reappeared so frequently that roughly 50% of the posts in the feeds ended up being politics-related. - While the most-encountered account was Kamala Harris’s official campaign page, KamalaHQ, the majority of the most frequently appearing political accounts promoted right-wing views. The findings undermine X’s assurances to skittish advertisers that users’ feeds are mostly nonpolitical. Meanwhile…the reach of politicians’ posts has declined since last year, but the most viral tweets from congressional accounts [came from Republicans]( according to a Washington Post analysis. It’s unclear whether the trend reflects user preferences or the inner workings of X’s algorithm, since WaPo did not find evidence of direct manipulation.—SK Together With Wendy’s [Wendy’s]( Breakfast on the brain. Fair warning: It’s gonna be difficult not to dream of [Wendy’s Breakfast Burrito]( all day long. Aptly dubbed the boss of breakfast burritos and made with fresh cracked eggs, seasoned potatoes, and your choice of sizzling bacon or sausage, see if you can beat our [crossword puzzle]( in tribute to this breakfast of champions. FOOD & BEV [Why beef producers are feuding with dieticians]( [Meat section of the grocery store]( Chan/Getty Images Five bean salad may be the new steak tartare. A group of scientists working on the next iteration of US [dietary guidelines]( recommended that Americans limit their red meat intake and increase plant consumption, drawing ire from the beef industry, which is still recovering from a chicken boom in the ’90s. A push for plants: In draft recommendations to the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, scientists suggested that new guidelines should encourage Americans to limit their red meat intake in favor of a “plant-forward” diet. This would move beans, peas, and lentils from the vegetable category to the protein category, in front of meat, poultry, and eggs, to address cardiovascular risks associated with eating red meat. But…the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is [pushing back]( warning that these guidelines would put Americans at risk of nutritional deficiencies. The NCBA criticized plant-forward suggestions as “out of touch” and “impractical” since 80% of the US population eats meat. There’s precedent: In 1977, the USDA recommended that Americans eat less red meat and more poultry to reduce the risk of heart disease. By the ’80s, beef consumption was down 20%, and 15 years after the guidelines changed, chicken became more popular than beef. If the same thing happens again, a Len-Til-A could be in your future.—CC STAT [Prime number: 80,000 Uncrustables per year](#) [graphic of a football player catching an Uncrustable sandwich]Emily Parsons Find someone who loves you as much as a 6'4" tight end loves sealed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crust removed. Smucker’s Uncrustables have long been a favorite snack of NFL players since they’re great on the go and athletes can inhale large quantities of them at once like a sandworm from Dune. But now we know just how much pro footballers love the pocket-sized noshes: [According to The Athletic]( NFL players consume 80,000 Uncrustables per season, or roughly the weight of three Travis Kelces every week. The Denver Broncos led the way last year, eating 700 sandwiches per week, while the New Orleans Saints were the least uncrustable, consuming just 50/week—probably because there is real food to eat in New Orleans. Smucker expects the product to reach $1 billion in annual revenue soon.—AE NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [Adidas and Ye]( settled their legal proceedings out of court with no money changing hands, Reuters reported. - [CNN]( is expanding its “magic wall”—the technology that anchor John King uses to tell viewers exactly how many people have voted in Waukesha County, Wisconsin—to its app for the election. - [Netflix]( is reportedly considering releasing Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film in Imax theaters. - [TikTok co-founder]( Zhang Yiming is now the richest person in China, worth nearly $50 billion, per the BBC. - [Kamala Harris]( will advertise on the Las Vegas Sphere this week. RECS [Tuesday To Do List] Read: [The secret]( behind Nerds Gummy Clusters. Bewilder: [This tool]( converts PDFs into TikTok-style “brainrot” content. Listen: [Sort your Spotify playlists]( by attributes like tempo, loudness, and danceability. Boo: [The 25 most effective]( movie jump-scares. Crystal clear: The [Horizon IX from hear.com]( features one of the world’s first dual-processing systems that separates speech from background noise. Claim your [free consultation]( Reach new realms: Looking for the key to unlock your business’s retail potential? [Get the scoop]( on how to increase engagement, boost efficiency, and accelerate growth. [Start here]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Word Search: Forget chocolate—Halloween is all about gummies this year. Try to identify the squishy candies in [today’s Word Search](. Pick the bigger number We’ll give you two figures, and you have to decide which represents the bigger number. - The number of Whole Foods locations in the United States OR the number of Trader Joe’s locations in the US. - How many votes President Biden received in the 2020 election OR the population of Thailand. - The number of Instagram followers for Zendaya OR the number of Instagram followers for National Geographic. - Calories in a McDonald’s Big Mac OR the number of billionaires in the US. - The number of times Harry Styles sings the phrase “Watermelon sugar” in the song “Watermelon Sugar” OR LeBron James’s average points per game across his career. SPACE [Space-to-Earth supply chains are becoming a reality]( [The ISS in space with a view of the Earth]( Images Unless you have space tourism cash, you may not see how space exploration benefits Earthlings beyond satellite internet and neat Insta reels from the ISS. But a novel push to build factories in orbit might change how you think about the billions of dollars being poured into rocket launches. Pioneering scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs hope to harness the zero-gravity environment to produce items that are either extremely impractical or impossible to make on Earth, from cutting-edge cancer drugs to game-changing semiconductors. [Read more about the budding orbital industrial revolution here](. ANSWER - Trader Joe’s has 549 locations, compared to 518 for Whole Foods. - Biden got more than 81 million votes in 2020. Thailand’s population is about 72 million. - National Geographic has more Instagram followers than Zendaya: 280 million to 181 million. - There are 813 billionaires in the US. A Big Mac has 590 calories. - LeBron James is averaging 27.1 points per game. Harry Styles sings “watermelon sugar” 25 times. Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: tantalizingly, meaning “in a way that arouses or stimulates desire or interest.” Thanks to Brandon from the Bay Area for the suggestion. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. ✢ A Note From Elf Labs This is a paid advertisement for Elf Labs’ Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at [elflabs.com](. Written by [Adam Epstein]( [Matty Merritt]( Sam Klebanov, [Cassandra Cassidy]( and [Neal Freyman]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Interested in podcasts? - Check out ours [here]( [ADVERTISE]( // [CAREERS]( // [SHOP]( // [FAQ]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here](. View our privacy policy [here](. Copyright © 2024 Morning Brew. All rights reserved. 22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011