June 26, 2024

The Appetizer

“We’ll do some sneaker work, we clean sneakers, you know, try to keep up with the times.”

• A Manhattan shoeshiner discussing how loosening dress codes have impacted his business.

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

• 23: The number of sets of twins who graduated from a single Massachusetts middle school this month. They made up almost 10% of the graduating class.
• 69.3: The average score from Forrester’s U.S. Customer Experience Index, the lowest score since the survey started in 2016. The score has declined for three straight years.
• 20: The number of central banks that plan to boost their gold reserves in 2024, based on a World Gold Council survey of 70 central banks, the highest since at least 2018.
• $2.9 million: The selling price for a signed one-of-one 2003-04 Upper Deck Michael Jordan card, a record for any Jordan trading card
• 71 million: The number of Americans that are expected to travel over the Independence Day holiday period.

Dig In
Power Demand

As the summer heat cranks up, our trusty power grid braces for another challenge: keeping up with demand. The U.S. power grid was built over a span of more than a century. That’s why there are over 80,000 different varieties and over 60 million transformers in the U.S. Everything from data centers, electric vehicles, and your AC depend on them.

Meteorologists are predicting a heat wave this summer that will affect over 135 million Americans. Caribou, Maine, for example, is expected to reach temperatures of 105 degree … far surpassing its usual July high of 76 degrees!

The Energy Information Administration predicts a 3% increase in the average monthly residential power bill to $173 from June to August! Here is a fun fact: turning off your AC when you’re out on the town doesn’t actually save money like one might think … restarting it forces it to work even harder!

As we sweat through the summer, our power grid might be sweating even harder. But don’t worry, the U.S. is investing a lot in infrastructure upgrades to meet future demand.

Weekly Specials

Golf is a mental game, and apparently it’s also a science. U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau conducts an experiment with his golf balls by dunking them into saltwater to test their balance before use. He’s precise, and it seems to be working.

Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics forward, and Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers right winger, have more in common than both being 2024 champions. They go way back, having attended the same high school in none other than St. Louis, Missouri in their youth.

Here’s an example of how businesses adapt to the changing times. Shoeshine shops are pivoting to sneaker cleaning, as dress codes these days have loosened quite a bit. Search interest on Google for office sneakers has increased 181% since the start of 2021.

Corporate Lunch

McDonald’s is ending its AI testing at drive-thrus after a series of mistakes that went viral, including a 260 Chicken McNugget order. I’m just brainstorming, but maybe we could skip the “Let me get uhhh…” stage if we used Scantron sheets.

Wells Fargo is losing $10 million per month on its credit card you can use to pay rent and rack up points like crazy.

Red Card: Adidas is investigating an executive who may have embezzled millions in kick … backs.

Apple will no longer offer its own buy now, pay later program, letting Klarna and Affirm take care of business.

Boeing got two astronauts into space but can’t quite get them back. Leaks and thruster problems have their guys waiting for a ride home.

Uber, Khosla, and Nvidia cut some big checks, investing $200 million in an autonomous trucking startup Waabi. Aren’t self-driving trucks just trains?

CVS is working to improve the pharmacy experience at its locations. Face painting and balloon animals sure would cheer the place up.

Snap launched advanced augmented reality leveraging AI. I remember when face swap was the cutting edge of AI tech.

Nationwide is dropping 100,000 pet insurance policies due to inflation. Is that gecko from GEICO still insured?

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.

Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index that is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.