QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You know you are having a bad day when you are lectured about customer service by members of Congress”—Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA) to airline executives on Capitol Hill. It only got worse from there.
MARKET CORNER
Market Snapshot
- Stocks edged higher on Tuesday, fueled by more positive earnings reports. The Nasdaq reached its second record high in as many days, with the S&P 500 closing in on its own record.
- U.S. treasury yields and crude oil both dropped. Across the pond, the euro and pound climbed after E.U. leaders reached another bailout deal with Greece.
- Japanese investors said "kon’nichiwa" to Bitcoin, sending the cryptocurrency above $1,400 to an all-time high.
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Microsoft Goes Back to School
Classrooms are still surprisingly low-tech: pencils, paper, chalkboards and maybe the occasional clunky, old Windows desktop. Ah, just how we remember it.
But, maybe not for much longer. CEO Satya Nadella laid out Microsoft’s (-0.16%) plans to be a bigger player in education tech—a market projected to reach $21 billion by 2020—with the new Surface Laptop.
Announced yesterday, it’s a sleek, shiny and powerful answer to the company’s earlier K-12 stumbles. (There’s a reason you’ve never heard of Windows RT.)
It’s not a game-changer
And that’s by design. The Surface Laptop isn’t here to be a recess bully. It wants to work alongside schools’ older equipment. With USB ports, a solid-state hard drive and 14-hours of battery life, it wants to be cool enough for kids and indispensable as an aide for teachers
Microsoft knows schools across the country are tight for cash, so the new gadgets are less than $1,000 and don’t require any IT experience either.
All of the machines can be set up with a provided USB stick, and the settings are remotely configurable to keep kids on task (No more cheating!)
Windows Apps like Word, Excel and the rest of Office will be free for schools, too. Once the students grow up, who knows, they might just end up lifelong Microsoft customers.
It won’t be easy
Reality check: Google’s Chromebooks already make up over half of classroom computer shipments. And that dominance isn’t just hurting Microsoft—Apple (+0.63%) also saw a huge drop in MacBook shipments to schools.
Long story short, by using its familiar face—and that principal who might not trust the ‘cloud’—Microsoft hopes to regain its dominance and leave a good first impression on those fresh-faced future customers.
Oh, How Tables Have Turned
Ever wonder how many U.S. jobs are outsourced? Roughly 3.2 million jobs have gone to China alone since 2001—a fact that the Trump administration isn’t too fond of. In light of recent political fire, India-based outsourcing firm Infosys (-0.14%) is trying to beat Trump at his own game. The 200,000-employee company plans to hire 10,000 more U.S.-based workers over the next two years, a move that will bring offshored jobs back home. Ironic, to say the least.
Airlines Get Grounded
Execs from four airlines were warned by members of Congress Tuesday to get their acts together or face consequences (aka more rules). United (+5.22%) CEO Oscar Munoz bore the brunt of their anger (maybe you heard about that little incident last month?), but all four caught grief for treating passengers poorly.
Carriers really don’t want Congress to step in, because the one-size-fits-all additions would only add to an already lengthy "passenger bill of rights". Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) didn’t offer any examples, but new bills like the “customers not cargo” act are already making their way through the Capitol’s Corridors.
Carphone, Meet the Phone Cars
Samsung(+0.63%) has been approved to test self-driving technology with its Korean neighbor Hyundai. The announcement comes just weeks after competing phone maker Apple finally admitted it was, in fact, working on a car too. Surprise, surprise.
They’re far from the only ones in the race. Tech giants like Tesla, Uber and Google are all developing autonomous vehicles alongside old-guard automakers like Ford, GM and Mercedes. The race is on—may the best tech win.
What Else Is Happening…
- Apple (-1.94% after hours) reported another rise in profits, but iPhone sales missed expectations
- UPS (+0.36%) plans to unveil 16 hydrogen fuel cell-powered delivery trucks by the end of next year
- Two private equity firms are reportedly interested in buying Staples (+1.35%), the largest U.S. office supply store
- IAC/InterActiveCorp (+14.31%) will buy review site Angie’s List for over $500 million
Economic Calendar
- Monday: DISH Networks (-) Earnings
- Tuesday: Aetna (+), Apple (+/-) , Coach (+), Etsy (-), MasterCard (+), Mondelez (+), Pfizer (+) Earnings; Motor Vehicle Sales
- Wednesday: BlackRock, Facebook, Fitbit, Kellogg, Sprint, Tesla, Time Warner, Yum! Brands Earnings; Fed Meeting Announcement
- Thursday: LendingClub, Motorola, ShakeShack, Viacom Earnings; Initial Jobless Claims
- Friday: Berkshire Hathaway, Moody’s Earnings; GDP
WATER COOLER
Interns: Show Me the Money
Summer is around the corner, and interns are either getting paid nothing… or are somehow making more than the average American worker. A new Glassdoor study notes 25 companies who pay more than the average U.S. salary. If you work in politics, you may want to stop here.
- You could probably guess, the highest paying internships are at tech giants like Facebook ($8000 a month!) and Microsoft ($6507 a month!). Banks and energy companies also have high pay.
- These interns aren’t fetching coffee, either. Many of these internships are trial runs for future employment. They pay well, but ain’t a walk in the park.
- Outside of salaries, the signing bonuses are hefty, too. One data collection by a Purdue undergrad found Facebook offering almost $80k just to entice skilled people like engineers to join! If we had a time machine...
THE BREAKROOM
Interview Question of the Day
You have 25 horses and need to find the fastest three. Only five horses can race at one time, and you don’t have a stopwatch. What is the minimum number of races required to find the fastest three?
(Answer)
Startup of the Day
Silicon Valley celebs like Peter Thiel and Marc Benioff have invested in a 22-year-old’s vision to clean up marine pollution by using natural ocean currents. Ocean Cleanup, as the Dutch company is aptly named, will be rolling out a full-scale test in 2020.
Stat of the Day
1047.5%—Italian automaker Alfa Romeo’s U.S. sales last month compared to the previous year. The astronomical increase was an outlier compared to the otherwise drab month for auto sales. That’s what happens when you can triple the number of available models in one quarter.
