What We’re Reading

Auto inventory:

Dealers had about 414,000 pickup trucks at the end of February, roughly half the number from a year earlier, according to Wards Intelligence.

Some dealers are shifting would-be new vehicle buyers to the used-car lot, but even that is becoming more difficult, dealers said, as they seek out used cars to offset the inventory problem in new vehicles.

Making the Moderna vaccine:

“They never had the virus on site at all; they really just used the sequence, and they viewed it as a software problem.”

Unintended consequences:

This year’s flu shot may not work as well as in previous years because plunging influenza levels—ironically due to mask wearing and other steps to tamp down the Covid-19 virus—means there’s a lot less data for picking strains for this fall’s flu season.

In or out:

Rutgers University announced Thursday that it would require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before coming to campus next fall.

Real-ish estate:

Toronto-based artist Krista Kim has sold the first NFT-backed digital home for over half a million dollars, as interest in virtual design continues to grow.

Named Mars House, the digital home designed by Kim was sold on non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare for 288 Ether ($512,000), a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin.

Have a good weekend, stay safe.