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🎙 “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” - See who said it and why it matters at the bottom.
Good morning! Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. (Today's Smart Brevity count: 1,047 words, 4 minutes.)
🎙 “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” - See who said it and why it matters at the bottom.
A seamstress works at a sewing machine in a tailoring shop in Palm Springs, Calif. Photo: Robert Alexander/Getty Images.
U.S. macroeconomic data is broadly improving but many small businesses are facing a perilous recovery as they attempt to stay afloat after coronavirus-driven lockdowns throughout the country. That's true even for the many that received government assistance.
By the numbers: A recent poll of 7,317 small business owners by Alignable finds that 43% of firms that received money through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) say they could be out of cash in a month or less.
Details: 69% of small businesses that did not receive PPP funding say they expect to be out of cash reserves next month.
The big picture: With stores back open, Americans have increased spending from April and May's depressed levels, but that may not be enough.
Between the lines: Some of the businesses left behind are expecting to lose significant revenue.
One level deeper: A trade group representing health and fitness clubs says the industry lost $5.6 billion from mid-March through June 1, and will continue to lose $350 million per week through the end of the year.
Go deeper: The pandemic's lost years
Governors may soon have tough decisions to make as coronavirus infections continue to increase in the U.S., and new data shows Americans are clearly in favor of shutting economies down again rather than risk infection.
Driving the news: A new survey from data firm CivicScience of nearly 2,500 U.S. adults finds 65% of the general population over the age of 18 supports returning to lockdown if cases of COVID-19 rise significantly.
Flashback: Public opinion is turning in states governed by Republicans and won by President Trump in 2016 that are seeing increased infection rates.
What they're saying: "In the places with the highest rates of increase, people are adjusting their behavior," said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. public affairs. "The more proximate it is, the greater the likelihood they adjust their behavior."
Consumer confidence had its first major decline since March 31 as a new round of coronavirus cases have spiked, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index.
What they're saying: Consumer confidence fell 1.3 points to 47.8.
A surge in Big Tech stocks has helped the Nasdaq rise by 13% this year, giving the index its most significant outperformance over the Dow and S&P 500, which are both negative for 2020, since 1983. (WSJ)
SoftBank is set to sell a portion of its stake in T-Mobile for $103 per share to raise $13.76 billion, as part of its plan to raise $41 billion for share buybacks. T-Mobile shares closed at over $107 on Tuesday. (Reuters)
The Trump administration is considering putting new tariffs on $3.1 billion of exports from France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., in response to a proposed tax on U.S. tech giants. (Bloomberg)
73% of economists in a new poll expect the U.S. will see a "reverse radical" recovery, meaning a steep drop in economic growth followed by a quick partial recovery and a longer period of slower, mixed growth. (FiveThirtyEight)
The dollar is falling back toward its March lows, moving lower against all six of the world's major currencies on Tuesday.
What's happening: Improving data in Europe and the U.S. have bolstered risk-on sentiment.
Yes, but: The dollar also fell to its lowest in six weeks against the Japanese yen, suggesting the greenback's weakness is broad-based and not entirely due to improving risk appetite. (Investors typically sell the yen when risk appetite increases, making the dollar's recent weakness against the currency unusual.)
Watch this space: The decline in the dollar and uptick in coronavirus cases helped gold rise to its highest level since October 2012, breaking out of a range it has held in since April.
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Quote: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
Why it matters: On June 24, 1901, Pablo Picasso had his first exhibit in Paris. Picasso would go on to become one of the world's most famous artists. He was also accused of stealing quite a bit of his art from African artists.