November 22, 2022

The Appetizer

“Well, this is awkward …”

• Budweiser in a now-deleted tweet reacting to the news that beer was being banned from World Cup stadiums, with the exception of corporate spectators, just two days before the competition started.

Now, on to the numbers. Drum roll, please …

• 675 million pounds: The amount of turkey estimated to be eaten on Thanksgiving. That’s roughly 42 million birds assuming they each weigh 16 pounds.
• 200 million pounds: The amount of turkey that consumers are estimated to throw away this year. Here are 33 easy leftover turkey recipes.
• 55 million: The number of people in U.S. expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
• 1.5%: The increase in the number of people planning to travel 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving, versus 2021.
• 1.65%: The percent of auto loans that were at least 60 days delinquent in the third quarter, the highest rate in more than a decade.
• 5: The number of World Cup titles won by Brazil, the most out of any nation.
• 1930: was the year of the first World Cup tournament, which took place in Uruguay.

Dig In
World Cup Briefing

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is here. With markets closing early on Friday, we’ll be rushing home for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s (USMNT) 2:00 p.m. EST kickoff against England. Here’s a preview:

Monday’s draw against Wales marked the USMNT’s return to World Cup play after failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament. While you may be familiar with Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, other names (yes, there are other players) to watch include 23-year-old captain Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah. Overall, the roster may be the most skilled in USMNT history, but expectations remain modest for the youngest squad in the tournament.

In the U.S., soccer’s popularity continues its across-the-board growth. At the youth level, U.S. Youth Soccer now registers 3 million players annually. Major League Soccer has teams in nearly 30 cities, drew 10 million in attendance during 2022, and signed a $2.5 billion TV deal with Apple TV+.

“Football” remains the world’s game. For reference, FIFA estimates that 5 billion people will watch the games globally – that’s 24 times the Super Bowl viewership!

Weekly Specials

The Ticketmaster website crashed last Tuesday, as millions of “Swifties” tried to buy tickets for the upcoming Taylor Swift tour. Ticketmaster reported more than 2 million tickets sales at the online presale event, with the site receiving 3.5 billion systems requests.

If you haven’t tried fried turkey, you’ve been missing out. To keep you and your home from becoming extra crispy, here’s a Thanksgiving PSA: Never deep-fry a frozen turkey. If this video doesn’t convince you to thaw the bird fully before cooking, we don’t know what will.

Traveling this week? We salute you. According to TSA data, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the holiday week: For every 100 people flying on Thursday (the slowest day), 177 fly out on Sunday.

The National Toy Hall of Fame inducted the top, Masters of the Universe, and the Lite-Brite from a field of 12 finalists. The hall recognizes toys that inspire creativity and have staying power. If that’s the criteria, the top has been waiting for an awful long time – people have been spinning tops for at least 2,000 years.

Corporate Lunch

Toyota unveiled new Prius hybrids that look pretty sweet. These bad boys get up to 57 miles per gallon.

Elon Musk told Twitter employees to go “extremely hardcore” or leave with three months of severance.

Estee Lauder agreed to acquire Tom Ford’s company for $2.8 billion, the largest deal in the luxury industry this year.

Google settled a court case by paying $392 million for allegedly tracking users after they disabled tracking on their phones.

Disney named Bob Iger as CEO, again. Iger previously held the role for 15 years and is coming back to serve for two years and help find a replacement.

Target said it has seen a significant increase in theft, costing it $400 million in profits in 2022.

TikTok is investing heavily in data security after the FBI reiterated national security concerns.

Mercedes dropped prices of EVs in China by up to $33,000 due to lagging sales. Shipping a car from China costs like $3,000…is this a possible arbitrage opportunity?

Apple said it invested $450 million to build an infrastructure that allows users to contact emergency dispatchers when cell phone service is unavailable.