August 18, 2026

Presented By

Salutations. Bank CEOs—they’re just like us! Ever played a fun little game with your coworkers where you have to sneak words into a presentation (or, erm, into your newsletter as Word of the Day)? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan sure has. That’s apparently why he tosses off SAT words like “gainsay,” “fantods,” and “anfractuous” during quarterly earnings calls with analysts. The head of America’s second-largest bank typically uses at least one ten-dollar word per call, and one BofA insider told the WSJ that the unusual words Moynihan slips into prepared scripts are randomly chosen just before the calls start.

—Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into:

Meta’s high-stakes child safety trial
A movie so bad it became a hit
An unexpected benefit to hiring job hoppers

Markets

Nasdaq

26,644.91

-0.32%

S&P

7,745.06

-0.52%

Dow

53,459.78

-0.51%

10-Year

4.724%

+3.0 bps

Bitcoin

$64,356.59

+2.15%

Micron

$1,011.75

+4.13%

Data is provided by

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

Markets: With tensions in the Middle East worrying investors, stocks fell as oil rose yesterday and 30-year Treasury yields reached their highest level since June 2007. However, chipmaker Micron managed to avoid the dip following reports that the US has discouraged Apple from buying Chinese chips.

Markets Sponsored by The Crew

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FINITE SCROLL

Meta defends itself in $1.4t trial

Morning Brew Inc.

Meta is in a higher stakes situation than someone prepping an Instagram summer photo dump after not posting for three years. The social media giant is heading to federal court in California today for the start of a trial that could upend how users scroll on its platforms and leave it financially ravaged if it loses.

California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are suing Meta for up to $1.4 trillion, claiming that the company intentionally got young people hooked on Facebook and Instagram through addictive product design. They also allege that Meta misled the public about product safety and broke a federal child privacy law. Meta has called the claims “unsubstantiated” and maintains that it implemented youth safety features.

Doomscrolling might be doomed

The plaintiffs aren’t just seeking damages that could bankrupt the company if it is found liable, given its $1.5 trillion market cap. They also want the court to force Meta to nix features central to its apps:

These include the infinite scroll enabled by autoplaying videos, ephemeral content like Instagram stories, and beauty filters.
The states also want Meta to crack down on kids making multiple accounts and for it to create parental verification for underage users.

In a similar but smaller case, a New Mexico court recently fined Meta $942 million after finding that its platforms were designed to be addictive and ordered it to implement safety features for users in the state. Today’s case demands more sweeping product changes that would potentially have to get implemented nationwide.

Will Meta have to cough up $1.4 trillion? Maybe not, even if it loses. A judge hearing the case said the payout demand is “unreasonable” in a recent pretrial hearing. But she said that Meta’s estimate that it would owe just $4 million “is also unreasonable.” A ruling against Meta could also spur some users to cut back on scrolling its products—imperiling the ad dollars funding its massive AI buildout—and inspire even more lawsuits.—SK

Sponsored By PwC

Have you asked yourself these defining AI questions?

PwC CEO and US Senior Partner Paul Griggs notes that AI is creating a workforce dividend. The question is, are you tapping into yours?

In this article, Griggs shares his POV on the debate about AI and jobs and how AI, when leveraged thoughtfully, can actually boost performance and enable capabilities that make new frontiers possible.

Together, AI and the human workforce have the potential to create a new springboard of capacity and resources. Not messily, not in place of, but symbiotically.

Read his take here and see what organizations can ask themselves to understand where they stand.

World

Tour de headlines

Two teenage boys sitting on a table watching ships in the distance in the Strait of Hormuz

Ali Saeedi/Getty Images

🇮🇷 Iran ceasefire deal expires. The 60-day deadline set in the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran passed yesterday, with no formal negotiations ongoing and both sides making conflicting demands for a peace deal—particularly as it relates to control of the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said that Iran must agree not to develop nuclear weapons and that the US was not in a rush to make a deal. He also threatened to attack Oman if it interferes with the US blockade of Iranian ships, saying in an interview with Fox News, “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” Meanwhile, an Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was ready to go on the offensive and “must be prepared to escalate tensions.”

🎬 Paramount wants states challenging WBD deal to put up $1.88 billion bond. The movie studio’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery has been delayed by an antitrust lawsuit brought by a California-led coalition of 12 states—and now Paramount Skydance wants them to pay for the delay. Paramount is taking an aggressive stance in the litigation and asking the court to require the states to provide a bond to cover the hefty fees it’ll owe Warner Bros. for the delay, with the money going to the company if it wins the case.

💔 Actress Hayden Panettiere dies at age 36. Panettiere, best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, died on Sunday in Greenville, SC. Earlier this year, she published a memoir in which she discussed her difficult relationship with her mother and her mistreatment as a young girl in Hollywood. She had also been candid about struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. Authorities said yesterday that a preliminary investigation into her death found no signs of “foul play or suspicious circumstances,” and that emergency responders had found Panettiere in cardiac arrest before her death.—AR

ZERO TO SIXTY

Ferrari’s widely mocked EV breaks auction record

White Ferrari Luce EV on black background

RM Sotheby's

This is the part of the rom-com when the bullied nerd stuns at prom: A custom model of Ferrari’s first electric vehicle, the Luce, sold for $40 million over the weekend, becoming the most expensive new car ever purchased at auction. It’s quite a recovery after it debuted as a laughingstock less than three months ago.

ICYMI: Co-designed by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, the Luce was highly anticipated but failed to impress many Ferrari fans when it was unveiled in May. The internet compared the car to a Nissan Leaf, and Ferrari’s former chairman said it didn’t deserve the Prancing Horse badge.

But there’s a buyer for everything. The custom Luce sold for 36 times its original estimate of $1.1 million, according to Sotheby’s. The auction house didn’t name the bidder but did say that…

The personalized model is finished with a pearl-like gloss that reflects green or violet in different lighting. So maybe the buyer is the Joker.
Proceeds from the sale will go to The Ferrari Foundation’s educational programs. So maybe the buyer isn’t the Joker.

The Luce is selling: Ferrari already hit its annual target for regular sales of the $626,000 Luce, thanks to strong demand in China, the Financial Times reported.—ML

Reader Poll

What are your thoughts on the Ferrari Luce?

It’s actually pretty cool.
The design is as bad as the internet says.
Why have a Ferrari that’s electric?
I don’t opine on cars that cost more than half a million.

Name that combo

In today’s trivia, we’ll give you an item that’s composed of two parts, and you have to identify the components that make up the whole.

Steel
A griffin
The island of Hispaniola
Brass
A Bellini cocktail

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Answer

Iron and carbon
Lion and eagle
Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Copper and zinc
Peach puree and prosecco

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: gainsay, meaning “to declare to be untrue or invalid.” Thanks to Beverly Fox from Canada for a suggestion sure to make you sound like a boss. Submit another Word of the Day here.

✳︎ A Note From Doroni

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Written by Abigail Rubenstein, Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Matty Merritt, and Neal Freyman

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