Wall Street Brunch- July 20

Summary

• Daily comments on Wall Street Breakfast, Google Finance, history, and investing. Asking that all political comments not be posted here. Please refrain from such comments.
• This Day in History brought to you by www.history.com.
• Stock an Investing news brought to you by Seeking Alpha and Google Finance.

Let's start with a little history, shall we?

On this day in 1969, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon. “Buzz” Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.”

On July 20, 1944, Adolf Hitler cheats death as a bomb planted in a briefcase goes off, but fails to kill him. High German officials had made up their minds that Hitler must die. He was leading Germany in a suicidal war on two fronts, and assassination was the only way to stop him. A coup d’etat would follow, and a new government in Berlin would save Germany from complete destruction at the hands of the Allies. That was the plan. This was the reality: Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, chief of the army reserve, had been given the task of planting a bomb during a conference that was to be held at Berchtesgaden, but was later moved to Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair, a command post at Rastenburg, Prussia. Stauffenberg planted the explosive in a briefcase, which he placed under a table, then left quickly. Hitler was studying a map of the Eastern front as Colonel Heinz Brandt, trying to get a better look at the map, moved the briefcase out of place, farther away from where the Fuhrer was standing. As the bomb went off, Stauffenberg was making his way to Berlin to carry out Operation Valkyrie, the overthrow of the central government. In Berlin, he and co-conspirator General Olbricht arrested the commander of the reserve army, General Fromm, and began issuing orders for the commandeering of various government buildings. And then the news came through from Herman Goering—Hitler was alive. Fromm, released from custody under the assumption he would nevertheless join the effort to throw Hitler out of office, turned on the conspirators. Stauffenberg and Olbricht were shot that same day. Once Hitler figured out the extent of the conspiracy (it reached all the way to occupied French), he began the systematic liquidation of his enemies. More than 7,000 Germans would be arrested (including Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer), and up to 5,000 would wind up dead—either executed or by suicides.

A flash flood hits Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on July 20, 1977, killing 84 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. This flood came 88 years after the infamous Great Flood of 1889 that killed more than 2,000 people in Johnstown. As they had in the first flood, the dams in the Conemaugh Valley failed, bringing disaster to the town. The flood occurred when an extraordinary amount of rain came down in the Conemaugh Valley in a short period of time. Nearly 12 inches were measured in 10 hours. The National Weather Service later estimated that this amount of rain in that location should happen less than once every 1,000 years. The failure of the dams came as a big surprise. Johnstown had constructed an entire system designed to completely eliminate the flood risk. In addition, regular inspections had turned up no defects. Still, the dams were no match for the thunderstorm that stalled over the area on July 20. In addition to the 84 people who lost their lives to the flood, $300 million in damages were suffered and hundreds of people lost their homes. President Jimmy Carter declared the region a federal disaster area and the National Guard was sent to assist in the relief efforts. Despite millions spent to rehabilitate the Johnstown area, the economy never recovered. The city’s population decreased nearly 15 percent in the aftermath of the flood, as people moved away to rebuild their lives elsewhere.

Now for some investing and stock news-

Futures kick off the week "flat." Crude is down 0.8% and Gold is up fractionally.

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) has dramatically cut back on its Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) advertising spending. Disney was Facebook's top U.S. advertiser for the first six months of 2020, spending $210M on Facebook ads for Disney+ in the U.S. Disney also halted advertising Hulu on Instagram, owned by Facebook (Hulu spent $16M on Instagram from April 15 to June 30).

Alibaba (BABA, +4%) popped ahead of the Wall Street bell. China's regulators raised the limit on how much insurers can invest in equity assets to 45%, while the PBOC kept prime rates unchanged for the third-straight month.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) agrees to acquire Noble Energy (NASDAQ:NBL) in an all-stock deal valued at $5B, or $10.38/share, a 7.6% premium over Noble's Friday closing price of $9.65. Buying Noble enhances Chevron's presence in the Permian Basin with 92K largely contiguous and adjacent acres, and in Colorado's DJ Basin, and brings assets in the eastern Mediterranean and West Africa.

Off to Google Finance and away from the pop-up ad from Brighthouse Financial that shows up every time I go to Seeking Alpha homepage!

More than 1,700 people have signed a petition urging Trader Joe's to change the labeling of some of its international food products, calling the grocery chain's branding "racist." "The grocery chain labels some of its ethnic foods with modifications of "Joe" that belies a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes," the petition, which a California high school senior launched two weeks ago, reads. It cites "Trader Ming's," the grocery chain's label for its Chinese products, "Arabian Joe," for its Middle Eastern products, "Trader José," for its Mexican products, and a handful of others as examples.

Seems to be a slow day for news on both sites-

Wanted to include this as there is more and more talk about Tesla's joining the S&P 500 being a "done deal."

To be added to the S&P 500, the following criteria must be met:

• It must be a U.S. company.
• The market cap must be $5.3 billion or more.
• The public float must consist of at least 50% of outstanding shares.
• It must have positive reported earnings in the most recent quarter, as well as over the four most recent quarters.
• The stock must have an active market and must trade for a reasonable share price.

Meeting these criteria isn't a guarantee that a stock will join the S&P 500 -- these are just the minimum requirements.

Where is Jon Corzine and is MF Global buying Chevron today?

Where is Marissa Mayer and will Yahoo bring her back to improve their content?

Where is Elizabeth Holmes and if she if found not guilty of "massive fraud" can Theranos resume operations?

Have a great day and wonderful week everyone. Stay safe out there.

This is the day The Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.