Good Morning and Happy Friday! If you’re working from home today, you might want to savor it. CEOs are predicting a full return to office by 2026. Millennials get roasted for their avocado toast obsession, but guess what? They’re looking better prepared for retirement than Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers.

American manufacturing is so back, and small towns are about to experience billion-dollar investments thanks to EV factories. SBF is trying to play dumb, but he got accused of knowing about the FTX/Alameda liability months before FTX’s collapse. And terrible news for JPow, with online holiday sales set to hit a record this year.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

The Big Short on Snacks

A surprising economic mover and shaker in 2023? Weight-loss drugs.

CEOs and investors have been talking about ways weight-loss drugs could revolutionize business and even the economy as a whole.

And Walmart's U.S. CEO says Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs are making their customers buy less food.

Walmart is studying changes in sales patterns between those using the drug and those who aren’t. And right now, they're just seeing a slight shift. One of the most common side effects of weight-loss drugs? Appetite suppression.

But it’s not all bad news for Walmart, even if its customers are buying less junk food. Walmart is taking advantage of the weight-loss drug craze, and selling them through their pharmacies. And since 2020, weight-loss drug sales have soared by 300%.

Fast forward to 2035, and Morgan Stanley predicts that nearly 7% of the U.S. population will be taking weight-loss medications.

Takeaway: If you’re the CEO of a junk food manufacturer or fast food chain - you gotta be sweating a little. This week Barclays came out and said investors should short fast food stocks because of the weight-loss craze.

And while some grocery chains like Walmart can make up for lost junk food sales from weight-loss drug prescriptions, investors are going to have to change the way they look at consumer staples stocks. For years, investors thought Americans would continue to buy more and more food. But with weight-loss drugs, we might just see folks trading their snack attacks for six-packs. 🍔➡️💪

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed lower ahead of key jobs data.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Lamb Weston ($LW) +8% after the french fry maker and McDonalds supplier raised its annual outlook.

• (–) Clorox ($CLX) -5% because the product maker says the cyberattack hit sales hard.

• (–) Rivian ($RIVN) -23% after the EV maker plans to raise $1.5 billion on debt offering.

Private Dealmaking

• Headway, a behavioral therapist network, raised $125 million

• Mach Industries, a defense tech startup, raised $79 million

• Brite Payments, an embedded payments startup, raised $60 million

• HyperSpace, an entertainment park company, raised $55 million

• Automata, a science lab automation company, raised $40 million

• Loop, a logistics audit and payment startup raised $35 million

Get access to private deal flow here.

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Why borrowing costs for nearly everything are soaring (CNBC)

• Only a stock market crash can rescue bonds (BB)

• How the Fed’s rate hikes sent stock buybacks falling (Axios)

• Is U.S. real estate worse than great depression for investors? (Fox)

• Is the U.S. underinvesting in AI and quantum computing? (Axios)

• Why 75,000 Kaiser employees are striking (Vox)

• Warner Bros. launches sports tier (YF)

• Private equity firms challenge Amentum in race for Jacobs unit (Reuters)

• Ken Griffin’s Citadel bucked the downtrend in September (CNBC)

• How AI could dethrone the four-year college degree (Axios)

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Scarcity Brain

Michael Easter, author of The Comfort Crisis and one of the world’s leading experts on behavior change, shows that the problem isn’t you. The problem is your scarcity mindset, left over from our ancient ancestors.

They had to constantly seek and consume to survive because vital survival tools like food, material goods, information, and power were scarce and hard to find.

But with our modern ability to easily fulfill our ancient desire for more, our hardwired “scarcity brain” is now backfiring.

And new technology and institutions—from dating and entertainment apps to our food and economic systems—are exploiting our scarcity brain.

They’re bombarding us with subversive “scarcity cues,” subtle triggers that lead us into low-reward cravings that hurt us in the long run.

Scarcity cues can be direct and all-encompassing, like a sagging economy. Or they can be subtle and slight, like our neighbor buying a shiny new car.

Easter traveled the world to consult with remarkable innovators and leading scientists who are finding surprising solutions for our scarcity brain.

He discovered simple tactics that can move us towards an abundance mindset, cement healthy habits, and allow us to live our lives to the fullest and appreciate what we have

“Reveals the biological and evolutionary foundations behind your brain’s fixations.”

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• How to tell someone they got your name wrong without making it awkward

• 10 habits to adopt now to get ahead of everyone else in 5 years

• 4 ways to make work more meaningful

• 3 elements of time management for business success

• 3 principles of having better conversations

_{DAILY VISUAL}

S&P 500 Stock Buybacks

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

6 Things Emotionally Intelligent People Won’t Do

They Won’t Let Anyone Limit Their Joy

They Won’t Forget

They Won’t Die in the Fight

They Won’t Prioritize Perfection

They Won’t Live in the Past

They Won’t Dwell on Problems

They Won’t Hang Around Negative People

They Won’t Hold Grudges

They Won’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day