Good morning. Motivational thought for the day:  —Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, Jamie Wilde | | | |  | Nasdaq | 12,175.23 | | | | | S&P | 4,160.68 | | | | | Dow | 33,180.14 | | |  | 10-Year | 2.983% | | | | | Bitcoin | $31,392.69 | | | | | Target | $155.98 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks shrugged off a bleak profit warning from Target to close higher on the day. Investors are trying to make sense of an extremely uncertain environment, and stocks haven't found their footing in one direction or the other in recent weeks.
- Global economy: The World Bank released a grim forecast for the global economy, concluding that "for many countries, recession will be hard to avoid." Disruptions from the war in Ukraine, Covid lockdowns in China, and ongoing supply shortages could lead to 1970s-style "stagflation"—and hit low- and middle-income countries the hardest, the World Bank projected.
| | | | Dianna "Mick" McDougall Staring down a huge inventory glut, Target said it's going to begin offering discounts, canceling orders, and taking other aggressive measures so that its stores don't end up looking like your grandma's attic. It also warned that its profits would take a hit while it Marie Kondos its way out of this mess. Target and other large US retailers are being forced to pivot hard to meet the changing needs of consumers. Whereas during the first two years of the pandemic shoppers were loading up on big-ticket home goods, like furniture and appliances, now they're spending like it's 2019—purchasing items such as luggage and cosmetics that are more associated with the "experience economy." Retailers were not prepared Target, Gap, Walmart, and others that had scrambled to stock their shelves early in the pandemic are now sitting on $45 billion in inventory they need to move, up 26% from the same period last year. Walmart's 32% jump in inventory in Q1 was "higher than we want," CEO Doug McMillon admitted last month. What happened: In trying to solve one problem (Covid-related shortages), retailers created another (a surplus of the kinds of goods people don't want to buy right now). In other words, they have too much grapefruit. But what about inflation? Surely soaring prices are discouraging people from shopping and contributing to retailers' inability to move product, right? Well, that's the big question economists are trying to answer right now, because it could signal whether we're entering a recession or not. Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of the US economy, after all. Retailers say that while shoppers are increasingly opting for essential items like groceries over TVs, they're still spending. And the data supports the theory that the American shopper is holding up just fine…for now: US consumer spending grew at the fastest clip in three months in April, when adjusting for inflation. For more: Watch our TikTok on Target's inventory woes, and then check out Retail Brew for more coverage of the retail industry.—NF | | TOGETHER WITH THE MOTLEY FOOL | | Talk to any investing guru (like The Motley Fool here) and they'll say success is all about playing the long game. To prove it, the Fool is offering new members a wicked discount on their market-tripling stock picks in Motley Fool Stock Advisor. See, they're pretty confident that once you peep these stock picks, you'll want to stick around. Since its inception, Stock Advisor picks have averaged a 334% return. Confidence earned, IMHO. New members can join now to get 60% off Stock Advisor and access to The Motley Fool analysts' next great stock ideas, plus a membership-fee-back guarantee.
Sign up today. | | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images  Matthew McConaughey calls for gun reform at the White House. The actor, a native of Uvalde, TX, gave an emotional speech imploring lawmakers to take steps to curb gun violence in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting. In one especially dramatic moment, he mentioned that the green Converse sneakers belonging to one child victim were the only way they could identify her. McConaughey had been considering running for governor of Texas, but decided not to.
 One USB-C cord to rule them all. The EU voted yesterday to standardize charging ports across small electronics like phones, cameras, and tablets. This means Apple, the company most affected by the ruling, will have until autumn 2024 to make iPhones and iPads USB-C compatible—a shift that's already in the works, according to Bloomberg. The goals of the policy are to save consumers money and cut down on the 11,000 tons of e-waste European citizens throw out every year.
 New age limit for figure skaters. The International Skating Union raised the minimum age for most high-level figure skating competitions to 17, citing detrimental effects on teens' mental and physical health. While the change had been discussed for a while, it might have been influenced by the drama surrounding 15-year-old Russian figure skating star Kamila Valieva, whose positive doping test was revealed at the Beijing Olympics several months ago.
| | Bee Movie/Paramount In a ruling ripe for a Jay Leno monologue, a California court said last week that bees are legally fish. The new classification protects bees—and other insects—under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), and is the culmination of a four-year legal tussle between environmentalists and agriculture groups that has major consequences for farmers in the state. The backstory: CESA, originally passed in 1970, only protects plants and animal species. So in 2018, three environmental groups that were worried about the declining pollinator population in California found a workaround to expand the legal definition of fish to cover four species of endangered bees. Section 45 of CESA defines fish as "...mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian…" but doesn't explicitly dictate that invertebrates have to be aquatic, so the groups successfully argued bees fall into that classification because they are invertebrates. Ag groups representing farmers appealed the ruling. The new classification adds a lot more red tape for transporting and working with bees, which are a vital part of the agriculture industry in the state. In 2020, a Sacramento County Superior Court sided with the ag groups and reversed the 2018 ruling. But on May 31, California's 3rd District Court of Appeals reversed that reversal, declaring once and for all that bees are in fact fish. The court even ruled that anything without a backbone qualifies as fish: jellyfish, insects, and you when your mom guilts you into going on a family vacation.—MM | | Taco Bell The only experience more thrilling than being proposed to with a Fire sauce packet might be ordering at Taco Bell's futuristic "Defy" location in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota—which opened yesterday. Imagine this: After ordering a Mexican Pizza and a Baja Blast on your phone, you drive up to a screen at the front of one of four drive-thru lanes, scan a QR code, and have your order descend from the restaurant overhead through a tubular contraption. You've secured the bag in less than two minutes with zero human interaction. (Watch this TikTok for the full tour.) If you want a more classic fast-food experience, you can drive through the one traditional lane or head inside the restaurant to order on a touchscreen or pick up a mobile order—but there's no place to sit. Zoom out: Taco Bell Defy is intended to optimize for the surge in delivery drivers and mobile orderers during the pandemic. Franchisee Border Foods observed that drive-thru orders at its 230 locations jumped from up to 70% of total sales before Covid-19 to over 90% now. Border Foods CEO Lee Engler told Axios, "We saw a lot of behavior change, and we don't see (the old way) coming back."—JW | | Baby Name Explorer Stat: Garys are endangered. Just 252 babies were named Gary in the US in 2021, despite it peaking as the 14th most popular name in the 1940s. So what caused the spike back then? Many attribute it to the popularity of film star Gary Cooper, who adopted the name "Gary" after his agent's hometown of Gary, Indiana. So, in effect, all Garys are named after Gary, Indiana. Quote: "People used to get high off of drugs. Now, we're getting high off the food." Eating your caviar with a spoon? How boomer. LA bar owner Jimmy Han told the NYT that "caviar bumps," or eating the fish roe off the back of your hand, is a trendy way to consume the delicacy. But it's not necessarily new—experts say this method has been traditionally used by caviar specialists to sample the food without messing with their palates. Watch: What happens after a TikTok song goes viral. (Vox) | | Design inspo: How Tesla got its logo. Peak YouTube: MrBeast built a replica of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and held a competition for $500,000 in cash. How are HR professionals keeping up with the changing office environment? We're here to talk about it. Join HR Brew and Fiverr for a virtual event on June 16 at 12pm ET. Register here. Because vacations shouldn't be stressful. Travel mishaps happen (read this article about some of our doozies), but you can safeguard your trips with travel insurance from battleface. Now, sit back, relax, and delete (temporarily, sigh) those work apps from your phone.* HR pros are people too, which is why BambooHR has your back. It streamlines the day-to-day and allows more time for what's most important—your team. Learn how this software can transform your employee experience.* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | - A bipartisan duo of senators released a comprehensive bill that would regulate the crypto industry.
- The energy giant Shell began selling electricity generated by renewable sources to Texans yesterday.
- Novavax's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for adults was recommended by an FDA advisory committee, setting the stage for FDA authorization next week.
- Google is light on details after promising to double its AI ethics team one year ago (special report from Emerging Tech Brew).
- Disney apologized after a Disneyland Paris employee broke up an engagement proposal in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
| | Word Search: Dreaming of scuba diving but it's the middle of the workweek? Go swimming with the fishes in spirit with today's Word Search. Play it here. Fruit trivia It seems like a lot of you have strong opinions on grapefruit's stunning fall from grace, which many readers attributed to the fact that it doesn't mix well with certain medicines, such as Lipitor. Let's keep the fruit content rolling today. We'll give you a fruit, and you have to guess whether its per capita consumption increased or decreased in the US in the past 50 years. - Avocado
- Oranges
- Cantaloupe
- Peaches
- Pineapples
- Grapes
| | - Big increase
- Pretty big decrease
- Stayed roughly flat (but curiously was very popular in the early 2000s)
- Decrease
- Big increase
- Big increase
| | | Written by Neal Freyman, Jamie Wilde, and Matty Merritt Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → - Emerging Tech Brew: AI, crypto, space, autonomous vehicles, and more
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