💰 Jobs, stocks, and stimulus talks

If only BLS did a "Wrapped"... Instead, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just dropped "The Employment Situation" for November — aka: the final jobs report we'll see this year. We're wrapping up 2020 so far:

• February: The unemployment rate was 3.5%, and social distancing meant flaking on plans to (voluntarily) watch Netflix all day.
• March to April: Lockdowns hit, unemployment spiked to 14.7%, and the US economy lost a staggering ~22M jobs.
• May to October: Unemployment consecutively fell each month as businesses reopened, from 13.3% in May to 6.9% in October.

Drum roll for November... The US added just 245K new jobs, down from 638K in October. Unemployment fell slightly to 6.7%, but that's partly thanks to people dropping out of the labor force (not searching for work = not unemployed).

• The good: The US has added back more than 12M jobs since March, a promising vaccine is on its way, and stocks are at record highs.
• The bad: The labor force is 2.2% smaller than pre-pandemic. That's largely due to women dropping out to cover childcare.
• The ugly: 10.7M Americans are still unemployed, the pace of recovery is significantly slowing, and Covid is surging.

If you didn't post a "Wrapped" Insta story... did you even listen to music this year? Spotify stock soared 15% last week, hitting a record high on "Wrapped" hype. Bad Bunny hopped to #1 for most streams, while Spotify jumped to #9 on the US app store on Wednesday. The Swedish streamer also got boosted by Joe Rogan's podcast, which became Spotify exclusive (ICYMI: Spotify is obsessed with pods).

Freeing up parking space... Boeing's 737 MAX jets are back in the air after nearly two years of sitting in lots. Last week, American Airlines flew the 1st public 737 MAX flight since March 2019, when the FAA grounded the troubled airliner after two fatal crashes. American filled the plane with journalists to convince the public that it's safe ahead of its commercial flight on December 29th. Another show of support: Ryanair ordered 75 more MAX jets. Boeing stock jumped 7% for the week.

No-K, Zoomer... Zoom's sales soared 367% last quarter, nearly quintupling from the same quarter last year and accelerating for three straight quarters. Despite the insane momentum, investors weren't impressed because Zoom's expecting just 329% sales growth this quarter (yawn). Investors were also bummed about its shrinking profit margin, so the stock fell 13% for the week. Despite the tough crowd, Zoom shares have ~6X'd in value this year.

The Undoing... of movie theaters, courtesy of HBO. Brad Pitt hit the fan on destructive news from AT&T's WarnerMedia last week: Warner Bros. will release all 17 of its 2021 movies on HBO Max at the same time they hit theaters. Dropping the entire slate of films directly to streaming = no exclusive theatrical window. AMC, the world's largest theater chain, watched its stock plunge 21% for the week.

• Hustle: 5 signs that you're ready to take your side hustle full-time.
• Smile: Neuroscience says doing this makes you as happy as eating 2,000 chocolate bars (hopefully not as sick).
• Commit: WFH habits of great writers, from Hemingway's 6 a.m. draft to Murakami's exercise routine.
• See: GIPHY's 10 most-viewed GIFs of 2020 (#8 pretty much sums it up — but so does #4).
• Work: How to professionally decline an unnecessary meeting, because Zoom fatigue is real.
• Build: How to break bad habits in three simple steps, according to #science.

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• Monday: Earnings expected from Stitch Fix
• Tuesday: Earnings expected from Chewy
• Wednesday: Earnings expected from Campbell Soup
• Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. Earnings expected from Lululemon, Adobe, Oracle, and Costco
• Friday: Consumer sentiment index released.

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