[Quartz Daily Brief](
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Investors look for Fed rate hike clues. The US central bank is [not expected to announce any big changes]( to its plans to raise interest rates this year, but analysts will scour todayâs statement for hints of a potential hike in June.
Yum! Brands serves up its latest financials. Analysts expect the owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC to post a rise in first-quarter restaurant sales. [Revenues]( in the quarter could be affected by the companyâs refranchising initiative.
Teslaâs cash-burning update. The electric-car company is under pressure to increase production of its Model 3 sedan while also curbing costs. CEO Elon Musk has promised that Tesla [doesnât need to raise additional capital]( but investors are dubious.
While you were sleeping
Appleâs numbers defied concerns over iPhone sales. [Earnings rose 25% to $13.8 billion]( revenue was up 16% to $61 billion, while the iPhone X was the best-selling model in every week of the quarter. Apple also announced that it would [spend $100 billion]( buying back its own shares, which boosted its stock price in after-hours trading.
Xerox CEO Jeff Jacobson resigned. He agreed to go as part of a deal with two of the US printer companyâs biggest shareholders, Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, who have been trying to [nix the $1.6 billion sale]( (paywall) of Xerox to Japanâs Fujifilm. Icahn and Deason agreed Tuesday night to end their proxy fight against the firm.
Donald Trumpâs former doctor denied writing the presidentâs 2015 health note. Harold Bornstein [told CNN]( that the then-presidential candidate Trump âdictatedâ his own doctorâs letterâit said he was in âastonishingly excellentâ health. Bornstein also said Trumpâs medical records were taken after his offices were raided in 2017.
Rusal got a reprieve. An [amendment]( (paywall) from the US Treasury department will give the Russian aluminum giant time to take steps to come off a [blacklist related to interference in the 2016 election](. Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, a majority shareholder in Rusalâs parent and a target of the sanctions, must now reduce his holdings.
North Americans gave Hugo Boss a boost. The German fashion brand said sales were up [5% in the first quarter]( thanks to a rebound in the Americas and China. Boss has changed its mind about trying to take the brand upmarket and expand its womenswear collections, concentrating instead on premium menâs clothing.
Quartz obsession interlude
Helen Edwards and Dave Edwards on how Tesla over-automated its factory. âRobots arenât as flexible as humans; they arenât as good as humans at adapting to product variants nor can they handle as many complex movements as humans. This means that, beyond a certain point, automation can raise costs, and contrary to what youâd expect, not help quality or productivity. Importantly, automation needs to be overlaid on a stable process to ensure that itâs not the errors that are being automated.â [Read more here](.
Matters of debate
Capitalism is obsolete. Todayâs problems are far too complex for [market economies to fix]( and capitalism often makes them worse.
Society, not biology, makes men bad at friendship. Pressure to reject âfeminineâ ideals like [empathy and vulnerability]( leads to increasing male loneliness.
Double-spacing is an abomination. It may slightly improve readability, but itâs really an anachronism from [the monospace fonts of the typewriter era](.
Message from our Partner
We're getting you into TechDay New York for free. Use the code QuartzVIP when you [register]( to bypass the current $10 admission fee, and join 500 of the nation's hottest startups as they explore which products and services we'll all use in the future.
Surprising discoveries
Smart people literally have bigger brain cells. Learning that [IQ is linked to neuron size]( (paywall) and performance could lead to new ways to enhance human intelligence.
Some of the worldâs richest nations have the weakest passports. Canada and China have strong economies, but they âlock their citizens inâ due to [low visa accessibility](.
Crowded airport lounges are irritating the 1%. One well-heeled traveler [described recent arrivals as âfarm animalsâ]( (paywall).
Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish. The country admitted that its national food was [based on a recipe]( brought home by King Charles XII after a visit to Turkey.
Zora Neale Hurston has a new book out. The novelist and anthropologist died in 1960 but Barracoon, her account of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade, [is about to be published](.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, MENSA tests, and meatball recipes to hi@qz.com. You can follow us [on Twitter]( for updates throughout the day or download our [apps for iPhone]( and [Android](. Todayâs Daily Brief was written by Jill Petzinger and edited by Lianna Brinded.
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