What Pete Davidson has to do with your breakfast...
February 09, 2023 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( TOGETHER WITH [DiversyFund]( Good morning. In todayâs Brew, youâll find an interview with an actor, a politician, and a fitness expert. But itâs not three different peopleâitâs just Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now heâs venturing into the newsletter world. Wow...heâs just like us. âJamie Wilde, Max Knoblauch, Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein MARKETS Nasdaq 11,910.52 -1.68% S&P 4,117.86 -1.11% Dow 33,949.01 -0.61% 10-Year 3.621% -5.6 bps Bitcoin $22,974.00 -0.01% Uber $36.83 +5.53% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:00am ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: Stocks [tumbled]( after investors revisited Jerome Powellâs interview from Tuesday and realized that maybe they should be worried about sustained rate hikes after all. Meanwhile, corporate earnings keep rolling in. Many results have been disappointing, but not Uberâsâthe company posted record revenue in what CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called its âstrongest quarter ever.â Â VIDEO GAMES [Hogwarts Legacy boycott hit with backfiring jinx](
[Harry Potter flying on a creature the game]( Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The new Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy, isnât even officially out yet and itâs already [a top seller](âdespite J.K. Rowling detractors urging players to set down their controllers. One of the most anticipated single-player RPGs of the year (Zeldaâs obviously No. 1) will be available for general sale on Friday, but Potterheads willing to spend extra galleons got early access with the purchase of its Deluxe Edition starting on Tuesday. Even with that limited release, the game has already⦠- Broken the record for most concurrent views on Twitch for a single-player game (1.2 million).
- Become the top earner on the video game marketplace Steam, the bestseller on the Epic Store, and taken both the No. 1 and No. 2 bestseller spots for its regular and deluxe versions on Amazon for the PlayStation 5. If you only became a free elf yesterday⦠The calls for a boycott stem from J.K. Rowlingâs polarizing views on transgender rights. Ever since she got tweet-happy about them in 2019, some former fans have stopped buying Gryffindor scarves to keep royalty checks out of her bank account. Despite the game developer Avalanche adding a transgender character to the game at the last minute, Hogwarts Legacy couldnât avoid the controversy. Influential gamers have been telling fans not to play the game, while others have added custom tags to the game in Steam, including âgenocide simulator.â At least one popular gaming chat forum banned discussion of it and some critics refused to review it. Zoom out: This isnât the first time a boycott backfired. Goya sales [rose]( 22% two weeks after social media users called on consumers to stop buying it, and Nike sales [went up]( 31% after a controversial campaign led to some people burning their shoes in protest. Oh, and did we mention that Louis CK [sold out]( a show at Madison Square Garden last week?âJW    TOGETHER WITH DIVERSYFUND [Gnarly investment, brah](
[DiversyFund]( Itâs time to break out your surfboard and ride the wave of ~multifamily housing assets~. [DiversyFund]( is stoked to offer accredited investors a slice of the sand and sun lifestyle with their newest Premier Offering: The Independent. Located less than a mile from the beach in Monterey, California, [The Independent]( is a 61-unit mixed-use multifamily asset that presents some pretty rad revenue potential through commercial leasing and/or conversions to create even more multifamily units. And The Independent isnât gonna wipe out. Itâs in an affluent location, and market indicators suggest The Independent is well positioned to *set* the market for multifamily rents in the area. Surfâs up. [Invest here](. WORLD Tour de headlines
[Disney castle]AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images Bob Iger revealed plans to restructure Disney. Yesterday, the House of Mouseâs recently returned CEO [unveiled his plans]( to save the company $5.5 billion, in part by cutting 7,000 jobs. The company will also be divided into three divisions: Disney Entertainment (for most media operations), ESPN, and a parks and products unit. âItâs time for another transformation,â Iger said, even as the company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings (largely because its streaming service lost less subscribers than anticipated). Former Twitter execs get congressional grilling. Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee [questioned]( three former Twitter executives yesterday over the companyâs 2020 decision to block users from sharing a New York Post story about Hunter Bidenâs laptopâa move conservatives see as evidence of widespread liberal bias in tech. The executives testified that there was no government involvement in the decision, while lawmakers on both sides of the aisle got testy and several GOP members praised Elon Muskâs release of the âTwitter Files.â Also revealed: The Trump White House once asked Twitter to remove a post by Chrissy Teigen. Turkeyâs president faces criticism over earthquake response. As the death toll exceeded 15,000 from the recent earthquakes in southern Turkey, the nationâs President Tayyip Erdogan [acknowledged]( problems with his governmentâs initial (slow) response to the disaster. Anger over that delayed response is quickly transforming into questions about Erdoganâs leadership, and he faces reelection in May. Visiting the impacted area, he sought to provide reassurance, saying no one would be left homeless by the quake. BIG TECH [Googleâs error proves AI is only inhuman](
[Google AI]( Francis Scialabba Still donât believe that generative AI is breaking new ground? When was the last time you saw a human make a $100 billion mistake? Google [showed off]( its answer to ChatGPT-infused Bing this week and things wentâ¦worse than expected. In an advertisement Google released on Monday touting its new AI chatbot, Bard, the system made a factual error, confidently asserting that the James Webb Space Telescope snapped âthe very first image of a planet outside our solar systemââalthough the milestone was actually reached 17 years before the JWST launched. In response to the mistake, the company highlighted its rigorous testing process for Bardâ¦which is kicking off this week. But between that and a hastily staged event (coming one day after Microsoft impressed with its souped-up Bing), Alphabet shares dropped ~8% yesterday, the most in over three months. Zoom out: Bardâs confident wrongness isnât uncommon in generative AIâChatGPTâs ability to be boldly inaccurate is well documented. The systems work by analyzing patterns in a huge mass of text and making predictions about what words come next (rather than analyzing and synthesizing ideas, like our brains do). This has led one Princeton professor to refer to them as âbullsh*t generators.ââMK    TOGETHER WITH DROPLETTE
[Droplette]( Skincare that ~actually~ works: 90% of traditional products never actually absorb into the skin. [Dropletteâs]( breakthrough tech is changing this by transforming serums into tiny, high-velocity micro-drops that get 20x deeper, where they are most effective. Make the change to Droplette and start seeing real results. [Save 50% on devices with code BREWLOVE](. FOOD & BEV [Taco Bell x Pete Davidson collab brought home the bacon](
[Pete Davidson in Taco Bell ad]( Taco Bell Pete Davidson saying sorry is compelling. Taco Bellâs parent company, Yum Brands, exceeded quarterly earnings expectations yesterday, and the fast-food giantâs CEO David Gibbs [credited]( a big chunk of that success to the guy whose dating history inspired a million Instagram graphics. Itâs thanks to a commercialâ¦that featured Davidson apologizing on behalf of Taco Bell for going a liâl wild on its past breakfast offerings and announcing simpler fare. After the commercial aired in October, breakfast sales at the chain jumped. This bump helped carry Taco Bell past Wall Street's expected 6.5% increase in same-store sales to 11%. That pushed Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC, to hit $2 billion in revenue in Q4. Fast-food breakfast is the most important meal of the day: Chains are scrambling to cement themselves as pre-work staples at the same time the oatmeal-at-home crowd is making their way back into the office. Workers who start their day in the drive-thru are one of the best sources of [repeat business]( for fast-food chains. And thanks to low prices, whatever McDonaldâs decides to melt over a biscuit is the meal least likely to get cut in consumer budget tightening.âMM    GRAB BAG Key performance indicators
[A hand with nail polish holding house keys]Photo Illustration: Dianna âMickâ McDougall, Source: Getty Images Stat: One thing single women have going for them over single men: Theyâre more likely to own their [own home](. Single women owned and occupied 10.76 million homes to single menâs 8.12 million as of 2021, per LendingTree. There are definitely single ladies out there getting theirs, but one factor may also be that women tend to outlive men and keep the home they once shared with a spouseâwhich might be why retirement hotspot Florida has the biggest disparity. Quote: âThis is nothing new. Christians have recognised since ancient times that God is neither male nor female.â The Church of England has waded into the debate over gender-neutral pronounsâbut theyâre not mandating them in clergiesâ email signatures, theyâre considering the most inclusive way to talk about God. The church is just [starting to explore]( the issue, and change would require a lengthy approval process, but to keep up with the times they are reconsidering terms like âHeâ and âOur Father.â Read: These are Kareem Abdul-Jabbarâs thoughts on LeBron breaking his scoring record. ([Substack]() FROM THE CREW [Hey, Arnold](
[Arnold Schwarzenegger ]( Ethan Miller/Getty Images The Brew recently had the chance to chat with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow newsletter writer over at [The Pump Daily]( whom you may know better as a weightlifting legend, movie star, and ex-governor. He shared his thoughts on everything from vegan sausages to the war in Ukraine. [Check it out](. NEWS What else is brewing - [Volodymyr Zelensky]( asked for more jets for Ukraine during a surprise trip to the UK and France yesterday.
- [Affirm]( is slashing 19% of its staff, about 500 people, as the buy now, pay later sector struggles.
- [Twitter]( went down for about 90 minutes yesterday and informed many users they had reached their daily limit on posts and could not send tweets.
- [Warner Bros.]( is reportedly going to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service rather than roll it into a larger service as planned.
- [Egg prices]( are going down, but so far only for stores, not consumers. RECS
[To do list Thursday] Meal prep: Tell [this website]( what ingredients you have on hand and it will tell you what to make. Express yourself: Hereâs [a map]( that shows how to say âI love youâ anywhere you go. Stay with a super superhost: An Airbnb co-founder has got a [room available]( in San Francisco. Go in for the kill: Channel your rage into rooting out these [invasive plant species](. File in a flash: Doing your taxes shouldnât have to be taxing. TaxActâs step-by-step guidance and live Xpert Assist make filing your taxes fast and easy. [Start your return here](.* Take a shortcut: Our very own spreadsheet expert Excel Dictionary just partnered with Microsoft to reveal her [fave keyboard shortcut](. Hereâs a hint: It gives words a ~makeover~. [Check it out](.* *This is sponsored advertising content. GAMES The puzzle section Brew Mini: Neal sweated through 2:56 for todayâs Mini. [Beat that score here](. Three headlines and a lie Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than the Valentineâs Day plans we told everyone we have. Can you spot the odd one out? - 9-year-old boy from Pennsylvania [graduates]( high school
- Some AMCs will [offer]( cheaper, standing room tickets
- Man [files]( $2.3 million lawsuit against woman he says âfriend-zonedâ him
- Harry Stylesâ stage [rotated]( in the wrong direction during Grammys AROUND THE BREW [Want to retire early?](
[Want to retire early?]( Letâs face itâwe all want to retire early. Thatâs why Money with Katie created an [early retirement guide]( to help you get there. The Brewâs one-week online course, Data Storytelling, will teach you how to create data dashboards that tell the story of your team, your business, or even yourself. It kicks off February 12â[reserve your spot now](. Interested in learning how CFOs shift their strategies in response to surprises? Today is your last chance to sign up for our [CFO Brew virtual event](. ANSWER We made up the AMC one. Written by [Neal Freyman](, [Max Knoblauch](, [Jamie Wilde](, [Matty Merritt](, [Abigail Rubenstein](, and Sam Klebanov Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Take The Brew to work - Marketers: [Marketing Brew]( Â [Future Social](
- Corporate: [CFO Brew]( Â [HR Brew](
- Tech: [IT Brew]( Â [Tech Brew](
- Retailers: [Retail Brew](
- Healthcare: [Healthcare Brew]( Get smarter in just 5 minutes - Money & Career: [Money Scoop]( Â [Money With Katie]( Business education without the BS - Programs in [Business Essentials](, [Analytics](, and [Leadership]( Interested in podcasts? - Check out ours [here]( [ADVERTISE]( // [CAREERS]( // [SHOP]( // [FAQ]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here](.
View our privacy policy [here](. Copyright © 2023 Morning Brew. All rights reserved.
22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011