🍋 NYC is Back

Together With

Good Morning! OPEC's recent announcement to cut oil production by an additional one million barrels per day means that oil price could skyrocket once more. Twitter’s new $1,000/month verification for businesses and orgs is not off to a great start, with New York Times and the White House declining to pay to keep their verification checkmark.

M&A activity dropped 20% last quarter, plummeting by 50% from Q1 2022. Private equity firms are also becoming reluctant to snatch up equity stakes in banks, opting instead to extend credit to struggling lenders.

And on a brighter note, Dogecoin is back. The coin rose 30% yesterday after Elon Musk changed Twitter’s blue bird logo with the token’s dog.

Talkspace is changing the therapy game with their sessions starting at $69/week (with or without insurance). Check them out here.

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1. Story of the Day: NYC is Back

Big cities are still seeing post-pandemic population declines. Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia all experienced a drop in population in 2023. Remote and hybrid workers are moving to the suburbs and South.

But NYC seems to be the only major city bucking the trend. Manhattan’s population grew by over 1% last year, defying expectations and surprising experts. And it wasn’t just because of births or immigration - more Americans moved into Manhattan last year than moved out.

Manhattan’s office vacancies are at an all-time high, and many companies are trying to reduce their footprint in New York and seek greener pastures elsewhere.

But while office life might never come back to pre-pandemic activities, realtors still say the rental market is as hot as ever. Some wealthy remote workers are using the city as a base. And younger workers are willing to work remotely from cramped apartments or coffee shops for a chance at city living.

NYC is officially back.

2. Markets Rundown

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S&P closed higher after oil stocks rallied.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Macy’s ($MACY) +7% after the stock was upgraded by JPMorgan.

• (–) WWE ($WWE) -2% after the company announced its merger with UFC.

• (–) Tesla ($TSLA) -6% as the company’s inventory piles up.

Private Dealmaking

• Extra Space Storage bought Life Storage for $12.7 billion

• Endeavor, a sports and entertainment company, bought World Wrestling Entertainment for $9.3 billion

• Blackstone bought Industrials REIT, an urban warehouse firm, for $945 million

• The U.S. National Institute on Aging will build a $300 million Alzheimer's research database

• Fourthline, an ID verification for startups platform, raised $54 million

• Bend Health, a telemental health startup, raised $32 million

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3. Top Reads

• What if the Fed hadn’t made a ‘mistake’? (YF)

• S&P 500’s resilience in banking crisis largely thanks to tech (WSJ)

• Could oil prices go back to $100 per barrel? (YF)

• March’s bank failure shows options tricky even when picking winners (CNBC)

• Bitcoin and Nasdaq were among best-performing assets of Q1 (Axios)

• How a fintech company handled a fintech crisis (TC)

• ChatGPT’s ‘iPhone moment’ poses new threat to Google (BB)

• Remote work took your parking spot (WSJ)

• In Silicon Valley, 11 renters compete for every available apartment (SV)

• McDonalds closed US corporate offices ahead of job cuts (BBC)

• One firm’s 3,612% returns are drawing Wall Street’s scrutiny (BB)

4. Shortform Book of the Day: Biased

How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play?

With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time.

She exposes racial bias at all levels of society—in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system.

Yet she also offers us tools to address it. Eberhardt shows us how we can be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip. Racial bias is a problem that we all have a role to play in solving.

“We choose what to pay attention to based on the ideas that we already have in our heads.”

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5. Short Squeez Picks

• Would life be better if you worked less?

• The golden age of the NYC landlord is over

• 3 social habits of high performers

• Maximize your learning time with these 7 habits

• How to increase dopamine to boost motivation

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Girlfriend: “How was your day?”

IB Analyst: “Sounds good, will do.”

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6. Daily Visual: TKO

WWE stock price

_{Source: Axios}

7. Daily Acumen

Reading classic literature holds a special charm, offering timeless wisdom and perspective often absent in contemporary works.

Delving into the pages of old books allows readers to escape the biases and trends of the present day.

By exploring diverse sources and venturing beyond one's comfort zone, a deeper understanding of the world can be achieved.

Classic literature serves as a valuable resource, guiding readers on a journey through history and providing meaningful insights from the past.

8. Memes of the Day

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