In This Story
Good morning, Quartz readers!
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
A company is offering a four-year cruise to ride out Trump’s presidency. There’s also an option to return after the 2026 mid-term elections.
What’s left of FTX is suing former rival Binance for $1.8 billion. The former accuses the latter of engineering FTX’s demise.
Tesla (TSLA+7.98%) short-sellers are getting crushed. The electric carmaker’s haters are eating crow after CEO Elon Musk helped a friendly Donald Trump win the presidency.
There are some streaming services that customers never cancel. Pioneering players Hulu (DIS+0.15%) and Netflix (NFLX+2.59%) are among them.
Elon Musk is already flexing his tightness with president-elect Donald Trump. He sat in with Trump on a re-introductory phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Musk’s Tesla finds a new gear
A lot of auto manufacturers are scrambling to figure out their approaches to a second Trump administration; their electric vehicle plans will need to be redrawn since the next government is less likely to give the sector as much support. But not Elon Musk.
He and Tesla are on the verge of a “new era,” says an analyst at Wedbush Securities. Musk and Trump are buddy-buddy thanks to the tech billionaire’s support of the former-and-future president, and the autonomous vehicle launches that Tesla is betting its future on will likely be easier as a result.
What else is provoking a bullish sentiment for Elon Musk’s car company? Quartz’s Will Gavin gets to the bottom of why things are looking up for Tesla.
Digging for treasury secretary
One of the most critical posts that a president can fill in terms of business and financial concerns is Treasury secretary. As Donald Trump gets ready for a second stint in the White House, there are already a few candidates for the job that he might have in mind.
Among them are one-percenter household names like Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and CNBC’s (CMCSA-0.18%) Larry Kudlow, but Wall Street bigwigs like John Paulso are also in the mix. Many of them are already familiar to Trumpworld, and one of them will become much more familiar to the rest of us once a pick is made.
Who else might have the signature on America’s currency? Quartz’s Rocio Fabbro runs through the possibilities.
MORE FROM QUARTZ
🦞 Red Lobster is bringing back an iconic menu item to replace its disastrous Endless Shrimp
😳 Mattel is apologizing after it made a Wicked doll box mistake
🍳 Costco is selling a 170-piece cookware set that costs more than its gold bars
🚫 No, Elon Musk did not buy Ford
₿ A Bitcoin fund bought $2 billion of the cryptocurrency right before it surged
💻 Computer chip companies are missing out on a roaring stock market
SURPRISING DISCOVERIES
Deforestation has been devastating to the people of Brazil. Scientists estimate that 700,000 people died prematurely in the country thanks to tree loss.
L’Oreal is going to start hosting tours of the Louvre. The beauty giant is trying to play up its cultural bona fides to gain marketing clout.
Syria is deploying a special type of stimulus package. The al-Assad government has made itself a key distributor of the upper captagon. (paywall)
Big-time college sports have gotten even bigger. The University of California Los Angeles hired an exec from Disney to be its chief revenue officer. (paywall)
Europeans and Americans may soon see eye-to-eye on currency concerns. Investors are betting that the euro and the dollar will be at parity by year’s end.
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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, pricey pots, and Trump Treasury secretary candidates to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Audrey McNamara.