Good morning. We're already planning our rager for World Emoji Day on July 17 (if you don't act fast all the good bars will be rented out). Can you say the same? If not, no worries—Marketing Brew put together a 2022 Marketer's Calendar for all your planning needs. Check it out today and never miss an important date all year. —Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt | | | READ THIS TO REMAIN A SUBSCRIBER Want to keep receiving Morning Brew? Clicking on newsletter links is the only way for us to know you are reading (and enjoying) Morning Brew. If you don't click by next month, you will stop receiving this newsletter. Click here to let us know that you're still an active subscriber. Thanks! | | | |  | Nasdaq | 15,413.28 | | | | | S&P | 4,668.97 | | | | | Dow | 35,650.95 | | | | | 10-Year | 1.414% | | | | | Bitcoin | $47,039.25 | | | | | AMC | $23.24 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Meme stocks like GameStop surged at the beginning of the year, but they're now in a big funk as investors dump riskier assets. An index of 37 stocks favored by retail traders hit its lowest level in seven months, and lost almost 25% of its value in just the last three weeks.
- Tornado update: At least 74 people were killed in Kentucky by Friday night's tornadoes, according to Gov. Andy Beshear. OSHA is now investigating the collapse of an Illinois Amazon warehouse that left six dead. And residents of affected communities may be without heat, water, or electricity for weeks.
| | Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images More than 500 women and girls who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the former doctor for the women's national gymnastics team, and others in the sport will receive $380 million in a settlement with USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). It's among the largest sex abuse settlements in history and marks the end a 5-year-long legal battle that revealed how Olympics organizations failed to shield young athletes from sexual predators. - Insurers of USA Gymnastics and the USOPC will foot most of the bill, but the USOPC will pay $34 million directly and will loan USA Gymnastics $6 million for its contribution.
- Survivors of Nassar's crimes had already been awarded $500 million in a previous settlement with Michigan State University, which employed Nassar.
"This chapter is finally closed" That's what former gymnast Rachael Denhollander tweeted after the settlement was announced yesterday. Denhollander was the first survivor to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse in September 2016, and hundreds of other competitors—including gymnastic legends Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and McKayla Maroney—followed her lead with similar allegations. That wave of legal challenges sent USA Gymnastics into a financial tailspin, forcing it to file for bankruptcy in 2018. This settlement will allow the organization to emerge from bankruptcy, restore its relationships with sponsors, and chart a new path forward under new leadership. Big picture: This legal battle not only exposed neglect for athlete safety at the top governance levels of US Olympic organizations, but also law enforcement's failure to act when notified of Nassar's crimes as early as 2015. At a Senate hearing in September, Simone Biles said she blames "an entire system that enabled and perpetrated this abuse." FBI Director Christopher Wray called the agency's response "inexcusable" and vowed that it won't happen again.—NF | | Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Israel's prime minister Naftali Bennett flew to Abu Dhabi to chat with the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the first public meeting between leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Not since Buzz and Woody have we seen such rivals turn into pals. Israel hadn't established diplomatic ties with Arab countries outside of Egypt and Jordan for decades, but last year it normalized relations with four, including the UAE and Bahrain. Why the change? There's certainly an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" element. Both the UAE and Israel see a nuclear Iran as the greatest threat to Middle Eastern stability, and they want to get on the same page as global leaders attempt to resurrect the defunct Iran nuclear deal. There's also lots of money to be made by establishing economic links between oil-rich UAE and Israel, a global tech hub. Trade in goods between the two countries shot up to nearly $500 million so far in 2021 from $125 million in 2020, while the UAE has launched a $10 billion fund for investments in Israel. Not to mention tourism: There was even a Chanukah ceremony held in Dubai this month.—NF | | OpenSea An NFT owner made a mistake that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars this weekend, and it wasn't just going to a private liberal arts school. Max, or maxnaut on digital marketplace OpenSea, meant to list a Bored Ape NFT for 75 ether (roughly $300,000) but accidentally typed 0.75 ether ($3,000) as the price. Before he could correct the problem, it had already been scooped up by a bot. No foul play, just fat fingers. In the past, significantly over- or under-priced NFT sales have been a sign of unusual, sometimes shady deals, but this one was just a mistake. "I list a lot of items every day and just wasn't paying attention properly," Max told CNET. Zoom out: Traditional finance has also suffered from its fair share of extra zeros and misplaced decimals. In 2014, a Japanese trader almost bought 57% of Toyota's stock by mistake. And last year, Citigroup accidentally paid Revlon's $894 million loan and is still trying to get about $504 million back. Bottom line: Because NFTs exist in a decentralized space, there's no customer service line or regulatory body to ask for a reversal like there is in traditional finance. And the goodwill of a bot isn't very reliable.—MM | | | If your toilet springs a leak, you call a plumber. If your car breaks down, you get a mechanic to look at it. We leave it to the experts when we aren't sure what we're doing, so when it comes to real estate investing, the method should be no different. That's the beauty of Fundrise. They've completely changed the game when it comes to investing in private real estate, making it both easier and more affordable. And once you start to fund your account, Fundrise will start working on your behalf. Their team of real estate experts build well-rounded portfolios by carefully evaluating projects based on factors like potential return and downside risk. All that's left for you to do is watch your progress. So leave it to those in the know. Invest with Fundrise today and join a community of over 170,000 investors who are building long-term wealth simply and seamlessly. | | Stat: One in 100 older Americans has died from Covid-19, per the NYT. About 600,000 of the 800,000 people (75%) who've died due to the virus in the US have been 65 or older. Quote: "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too." Elon Musk was selected as Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2021. Read: How former BuzzFeed employees missed their big payday. (The New Yorker) | | Francis Scialabba Your Animal Crossing island may have gone feral, but the Nintendo Switch is still the king of the consoles. It was the bestselling video game console in the US in November—the 35th month out of the past 36 that it's topped the list—according to the NPD Group's report released Monday. Among the three Switch models (Lite, OLED, and...normal), 1.13 million consoles were sold in the industry's most important month. Following Nintendo, the Xbox Series X and S came in second place, ahead of the at-this-point-mythical PS5 (which is in last place). If you're wondering why the Switch is dominating the highly sought after PS5, it's not complicated: The Switch is reliably in stock and the PS5 is not. Sony told analysts in the spring that keeping up with demand would continue being an issue into 2022, and that even with a large production increase, matching consumers' PS5 hunger would remain difficult. Turns out they were right. Big picture: Supply snags don't exactly spell doom for Sony's PS5. It's still the company's fastest-selling console in history, and the only one to interrupt the Switch's 3-year sale streak: It outsold the Switch in September.—MK | | - California is reimposing a mask mandate for indoor venues regardless of vaccination status. It'll last for one month.
- Harley-Davidson's electric motorcycle unit, LiveWire, will go public via SPAC in a deal valued at $1.8 billion.
- Cacti, Travis Scott's spiked seltzer brand, has been discontinued by Anheuser-Busch following the deaths of 10 people at the rapper's concert in November.
- South Korea will not join other countries in staging a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, citing its strategic ties to China, its largest trading partner and key player in negotiations with North Korea.
| | | Get those holiday gifts now. Not to nag, but you're kiiiinda cutting it close, and with Affirm, you can spread out your payments. Affirm is the perfect way to shop for everyone on your list—you can split the cost over manageable biweekly or monthly payments, with no hidden or late fees. Affirm is also available at thousands of merchants including Walmart, Expedia, StockX, DICK'S Sporting Goods, and West Elm. Learn more here. | | Looking for a podcast worth listening to? Join Business Casual for conversations with the biggest names in business. | | Tech Tip Tuesday: The best way to wrap up 2021 is to make a nostalgic collage set to moody music. Want more recs from the Brew Crew? Check out Sidekick, the twice-weekly newsletter helping you live smarter. Which early hominid are you? You must be desperate to find out, so go ahead and take the quiz. | | Brew Mini: Today's Mini is not the simplest, but we've been going easy on you the past couple of puzzles and you deserve a challenge. Play it here. Call Me By Your Name What was the most common first letter of baby names in the US last year? The least common? | | Most common: A, followed by J, M, and E Least common: U, which was even less common than Q | | | ✢ A Note From Fundrise (Here's all the legal jargon we know you love reading.) | | | Written by Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, and Max Knoblauch Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → | ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ
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