August 10, 2026

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Yo. Did you hear about the guy who hooked up his hamster’s wheel to Strava? That little critter has been clearing up to 6 miles per night since he started on July 29. We’re concerned that he’s running on the wheel of time, though, because it’s definitely been getting darker earlier since then…

—Holly Van Leuven, Brendan Cosgrove, Neal Freyman

In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at:

Buc-ee’s launching a lot of trademark lawsuits
The US “low-keying it” with Iran
Berkshire Hathaway spending Warren Buffett’s cash horde

Markets: Year-to-Date

Nasdaq

26,690.62

+14.84%

S&P

7,757.64

+13.32%

Dow

54,036.93

+12.43%

10-Year

4.660%

+49.7 bps

Bitcoin

$65,003.77

-25.72%

Hims & Hers

$31.59

-2.71%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: All three major indexes are coming off their best week in months, thanks to a strong showing led by tech stocks on Friday. This week, it’s all about prices and the US consumer, the backbone of the country’s economy (more on that later).
Stock spotlight: Over the past six months, Hims & Hers Health is up more than 63%, but still down year to date. The telehealth company will report earnings today after the closing bell.

Three chains in a beaver suit

Buc-ee’s goes beast mode on trademark protection

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

We thought the only Angry Beavers were Norbert and Daggett, but it might be time to add Buc-ee to the list. Buc-ee’s has garnered a lot of attention for a series of lawsuits it’s filed regarding alleged trademark infringement on its beloved buck-toothed boi.

Beaver says ‘leave it’

The convenience mart-slash-gas station chain based in Texas recently thrilled international World Cup fans, but public sentiment has since shifted.

On July 26, John Oliver dedicated a segment of Last Week Tonight to the barrage of lawsuits Buc-ee’s has lodged against smaller businesses. These include:

Suing the clothing brand Born United for an apparel line featuring a beaver strikingly similar to the Buc-ee’s mascot carrying an automatic weapon. The brand pulled the offending products from its site.
A dog park in Missouri called Barc-ee’s, which shut down as a result of the lawsuit.
Choke Canyon Bar-B-Q, a San Antonio, TX-based restaurant chain with a circular logo featuring a cartoon alligator. A jury in Houston, TX, ruled it was too similar to Buc-ee’s.

The suit that may have garnered the most negative PR, though, is the one it lodged against the Mickey’s convenience store chain in Ohio with 42 locations:

Mickey’s has been operating since 1982, the same year the first Buc-ee’s opened in Clute, TX.
The Ohio chain’s logo boasts a cartoon moose, which has apparently coexisted with the Buc-ee’s beaver in the convenience-mart-sphere for 35 years without a prior dust-up.
But in February of this year, two months before Buc-ee’s opened its first Ohio location, Team Beaver sued Mickey’s, saying that its moose was too similar because it also featured a “cartoon animal facing right with wide eyes and a smile.”

When asked about the case by the Wall Street Journal, a Buc-ee’s representative said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.

Zoom out: The governor of Ohio wants Buc-ee’s to let it be…aver, and thinks it should drop the suit. Mickey’s CEO said in a statement, “We intend to move forward as the Mickey’s you’ve always known…we aren’t going anywhere.” However, the case is still pending, and a settlement conference is scheduled for Sept. 9.—HVL

Reader Poll

Do you think Buc-ee’s is being overly aggressive with its trademark lawsuits?

Yes, do less, Buc-ee’s.
No, protecting the brand is everything.
Maybe, but I’d like more court verdicts to decide.

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World

Tour de headlines

Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026

Atta Kenare/Getty Images

🇮🇷 Trump told Axios, “We are low-keying it” with Iran. The status update came in a brief phone call with Trump yesterday, the outlet said, where he elaborated that “we are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.” Last week, an agreement regarding the Strait of Hormuz negotiated with Oman’s help was expected imminently, but it hasn’t materialized. On Saturday, Iran issued a statement with demands for reopening the strait, which largely matched the terms laid out in the now-defunct June memo of understanding. Some experts say the mixed messages signal division within the Iranian leadership.

🌏 Netanyahu rejected Trump-backed 15-point Gaza peace plan. In a statement yesterday, the Israeli prime minister said Israel rejected the plan put forth by President Trump’s Board of Peace, marking a rare public break between Netanyahu and the president. Netanyahu said, “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” Trump said the plan, released in July, would be implemented in stages, but Sunday’s statement amounted to a rejection of that idea. Following Netanyahu’s statement, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, insisted the US-backed peace plan was “the only way forward.”

💔 A boat capsized in New York Harbor, killing mother and infant. The incident took place Saturday night near Liberty Island, the home of the Statue of Liberty, according to the US Coast Guard. Twelve people were rescued before police arrived, and were in stable condition when they arrived at the scene. Police divers discovered the 27-year-old mother and her five-month-old daughter in the water, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital. The boat’s captain was arrested and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment. The Coast Guard said yesterday that an investigation is underway to determine if the boat was an illegal charter.—HVL

Willing and Abel

Berkshire is finally dipping into its mountain of cash

Berkshire CEO Greg Abel poses for pictures before the May 2026 shareholder meeting

Berkshire CEO Greg Abel posed for pictures before this year’s shareholder meeting in May. Omaha World-Herald/Getty Images

When Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway CEO this year, he inherited two things: oracle-sized shoes to fill and a massive pile of cash. This past quarter, he took both in a new direction by going on a multibillion-dollar spending spree:

At the end of Q1, Berkshire had $397 billion in cash on hand.
By the end of Q2, that had shrunk to $365.5 billion, the company announced as it reported earnings on Saturday.

Bye, bye, buy: During his last few years as CEO, Warren Buffett held onto cash like a broken vending machine. From October 2022 to December 2025, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks, and its cash pile more than tripled.

But Abel uncorked the piggy bank last quarter, investing $10 billion in Alphabet and buying back about $4.5 billion worth of Berkshire shares—something the company traditionally only does when it believes it’s being undervalued. (Berkshire also dropped $6.8 billion on homebuilder Taylor Morrison last month, but that didn’t close until after the quarter ended.)

Other ’shire things: Berkshire’s operating earnings also jumped 16% last quarter, as its energy, manufacturing, service, and retail businesses helped make up for its sagging insurance sector. You’re on thin ice, Geico gecko.—BC

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calendar

The week ahead

a boy looking at school supplies in a store

Riccardo Milani/Getty Images

Double dose of inflation data: The July consumer price index report will be released on Wednesday, then the producer price index data will be out on Thursday. The latest retail sales data will also be released on Friday, as will the preliminary results of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey.

Back to school: It’s time to pick out a new Trapper Keeper and hope you still remember how fractions work. For many, class is either back in session or just around the corner, which means discounts and sales tax holidays for several states. Families with students in elementary through high school are expected to spend a record $43.3 billion going back to school, which comes close to $864 per family, according to a National Retail Federation survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Don’t forget the sun block: There’s a solar eclipse on Wednesday and, depending on where you live, you could be in for a treat. If you’re in Canada, Alaska, or parts of the Northern and Eastern US, you’ll get to see a partial eclipse that will make the sun look like a crescent. But Iceland, Greenland, northern Russia, Spain, and northwestern Portugal will get the full package and see the moon block out the sun. As for the rest of us, we can just imagine how terrifying that experience must have been for primitive humans to witness.

But wait, there’s more:

CoreWeave, Lumentum, Smithfield Foods, and Cava will report earnings tomorrow, followed by Cisco and Cerebras on Wednesday.
The End of Oak Street, starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway, and PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie roar into theaters on Friday.

Brendan’s Got Good News

Soccer team shows sponsors can really ad(d) up

a banner image promoting the new Deportivo Municipal kit

Club Deportivo Municipal/Facebook

Mondays are bad enough, so the Brew’s own Brendan Cosgrove scoured the internet for a positive news story to help you start the week off right.

If the Peruvian soccer team Deportivo Municipal needs an anthem, they might want to consider Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors.” The Lima-based club has struggled financially, but things went to a new level when its main uniform sponsor walked away, meaning the club literally lost its shirt.

So, it had to get creative, redesigning its kit to feature 1,000 black-and-white squares, then selling each square as an ad spot for about $60 each. Small businesses from around Lima jumped at the opportunity, and some even threw in extra money, helping the club raise about $75,000, according to The Athletic. While some teams are playing checkers, Deportivo Municipal is making their jerseys look like chess.—BC

Homegrown fun

Today’s puzzle was invented by our very own puzzle creator, Jack Murtagh.

Guess the secret password from the following clues:

1. The password has to do with one of the five senses.

2. The password begins with a chemical symbol.

3. The password has three syllables.

4. The password begins with a car brand.

5. The password is 80% vowels.

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Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/r/?kid=71df84e8

Answer

Audio (We played this last week on the Morning Brew Daily podcast, which you should definitely check out.)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: kit, meaning “clothing for a particular sport.” Thanks to Peggy A. from Yorba Linda, CA, for the uniformly good suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.

Written by Holly Van Leuven , Brendan Cosgrove, and Neal Freyman

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