đ Good morning. Feeling discouraged this week? (If you checked your stock portfolio, then probably). Remember, life is long â you never know whatâs going to change. Just ask Mommy, the 97-year-old tortoise at the Philadelphia Zoo who became a first-time mom to four hatchlings last week. The senior gal has lived at the zoo since 1932 and is its oldest resident. So you can teach an old tortoise new tricks.
đ§ On the pod: The market is hitting turbulence and airlines are preparing for a bumpy ride.
NEWS FLASH
đ° Who wants to be a millionaire? Well, the gamble just got a little pricier. Mega Millions is more than doubling the price of its lottery tickets, from $2 to $5 â its second-ever price increase since debuting in 2002. The game says itâll be well worth it, estimating that the average jackpot will be $800m+, up from the current $450m average. The lottery is also doing away with âbreakeven prizes,â meaning lower-payout winners will now be up to take home much more. But, of course, most are hoping for their big break. In the gameâs 23 years, seven winners have won $1B+ jackpots.
đ€Š Face-palm: US YouTuber Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, AKA Neo-Orientalist, was arrested by Indian authorities for illegally attempting contact with the Sentinelese â an extremely isolated indigenous group located on an Indian Ocean island â and now faces jail time. Polyakov left a can of soda and a coconut and did not make contact with anyone. Had he, he could have spread disease or been killed, which is what happened to a US missionary in 2018. The risk was definitely not worth the likes or subscribers.
đș Colossal Biosciences says dire wolves, which went extinct 10k years ago, are back. It extracted DNA from two fossils and used genetic editing to produce three puppies: males Romulus and Remus, and a female named Khaleesi after the âGame of Thronesâ character â who, as a Targaryen, never had a dire wolf, unlike the fantasy showâs Stark siblings. Filmmaker Peter Jackson also loaned the company the seriesâ 330-pound Iron Throne for a photoshoot, which he bought at auction for $1.49m in 2024. This is all weird, yes, but they really are some cute puppies.
In other gaming news, Microsoft released an AI-generated version of video game âQuake II.â Built to showcase the companyâs Muse suite of AI models, researchers admitted that Copilot users might notice some âlimitations and shortcomings.â
The UK banned fake reviews and hidden fees for online shopping platforms, including food delivery and ticketing sites. Officials estimate such tactics cost UK consumers ~$2.8B per year.
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Unless youâve been living under a really heavy rock (in which case, scoot over) you know that US President Donald Trumpâs sweeping tariffs are turning the global economy upside down.
But thereâs a more surprising victim than the Nintendo Switch 2 or your 401k: IPOs.
Taking stock
The market has been tough on initial public offerings for years, with things looking rough even back in 2018 â pre-Trumpâs second term and pre-covid â when the number of startups making IPOs was steadily declining.
Things were looking up for 2025, but with the drama in the stock market, startups are putting their IPO dreams on hold, per Business Insider.
Payment platform Klarna and ticket reseller StubHub both canceled IPO plans on Friday.
Analysts predict there could be just 150 IPOs in 2025, which would mark four straight years of decline.
Thatâs combined with more investment money going to fewer companies in general, which is tough on the proverbial little guy.
This is actually goodâŠ
⊠for superrich VC investors â but not anyone else (sorry for the fake-out).
High-profile companies, like OpenAI, will be fine coasting on private investments.
But the stock market is such a mess that it would be too risky for smaller companies to take a shot at an IPO.
That means only deep-pocketed investors will be able to get in on hot startups.
Which means only the hot startups get money⊠which means fewer companies surviving⊠which means the world could miss out on the next Facebook, or some less problematic Big Tech innovation. Letâs say Waymo.
HopefullyâŠ
⊠this isnât the permanent state of things and the world of IPOs will stabilize when the market does.
Of course, thereâs nobody, seemingly, who knows when that might happen. Swell.
Cold-calling: The bane of many a sales proâs existence, but just as effective as it is awful. Check out HubSpotâs State of Cold Calling Report for a look at where it stands in 2025.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
The hiring increase for accountants in 2024.
A notoriously unsexy career is having a major moment: Companies canât get enough number-crunching accountants.
And theyâre willing to pay. Accountant salaries grew 15% last year â faster than they did for any other profession, according to Deelâs 2024 State of Global Hiring Report.
What led to the demand? In part, declining interest in accounting from professionals entering the workforce and increasingly complex tax requirements for businesses.
Software engineers, once the employment golden children, have taken a back seat. The profession saw a 22% hiring increase last year and an 8% salary increase.
AROUND THE WEB
đȘ On this day: In 1983, magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty âdisappear.â
đșïž Thatâs cool: View anywhere on Earth as a Mercator map.
With the labor market the way it is, people are getting creative with how they approach job hunting â like software engineer Argenis De La Rosa, who offered $10k to anyone who could help him land a six-figure job in a LinkedIn post last month. He published it partly in jest, De La Rosa toldBusiness Insider, but ran with the idea after receiving ânonstopâ messages in the first 24 hours.
It doesnât seem heâs landed a new gig yet, though the post has inspired several copycats.
SHOWER THOUGHT
When you chew whole peanuts you are making peanut butter in your mouth.SOURCE
Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Sam Barsanti, Singdhi Sokpo, and Kaylee Jenzen. Editing by: Ben âWall Street wallflowerâ Berkley.
