Wall Street Brunch- September 8
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2010
Over thirty years experience with the stock market and investing. Enjoy actively managing several portfolios. Looking for diversification in portfolios. Research and homework on stocks are enjoyable: BS Ed./MS- Thirty years of coaching HS Varsity Football- Proud husband to my beautiful wife - Dad to five amazing children- Keeper of two stunning Bengal cats and a handsome Cavapoo.
Summary
- Please keep political comments off of the comment board unless these are tied to stocks and investing. Thank you for your consideration!
- This Day in History brought to you by www.history.com.
- Stock and investing news is brought to you by Seeking Alpha, Google Finance, Market Watch!, and @SowingAlfalfa.
Let's start with a little history, shall we?
On this day in 1504, One of the world’s most beloved works art, “David,” the 17-foot-tall, 12,000-pound marble masterpiece by Michelangelo Buonarroti, is unveiled to the public in Florence, Italy’s Piazza della Signoria. Carved from a single block of white Italian Carrara marble that had been rejected by other artists for being flawed, the massive statue depicts a nude David, the Biblical hero who used a slingshot to slay the giant Goliath. The work was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the Cathedral of Florence in 1501, and took roughly three years to complete. The sculpture was to be part of a series of other statues to be located along the roofline of the cathedral. Michelangelo was only 26 at the time of the commission. Upon its unveiling to the Cathedral Vestry Board, it was decided by a committee that included Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli that the statue should be placed in a more public location (plus, lifting more than 6 tons of marble onto a roof added a whole other set of complications). Once decided it would reside in the piazza, it took a reported 40 men four days to move the massive statue one-half mile. In 1873, after almost 400 years, “David” was moved indoors to the Galleria dell’Accademia to protect it from damage. A replica remains in its place in the piazza.
On this day in 1664, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam’s name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission. The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. A successful Dutch settlement in the colony grew up on the southern tip of Manhattan Island and was christened New Amsterdam. To legitimatize Dutch claims to New Amsterdam, Dutch governor Peter Minuit formally purchased Manhattan from the local tribe from which it derives it name in 1626. According to legend, the Manhattans–Indians of Algonquian linguistic stock–agreed to give up the island in exchange for trinkets valued at only $24. However, as they were ignorant of European customs of property and contracts, it was not long before the Manhattans came into armed conflict with the expanding Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam. Beginning in 1641, a protracted war was fought between the colonists and the Manhattans, which resulted in the death of more than 1,000 Indians and settlers. In 1664, New Amsterdam passed to English control, and English and Dutch settlers lived together peacefully. In 1673, there was a short interruption of English rule when the Netherlands temporary regained the settlement. In 1674, New York was returned to the English, and in 1686 it became the first city in the colonies to receive a royal charter. After the American Revolution, it became the first capital of the United States.
On this day in 1974, in a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor Richard M. Nixon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal. Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. Exactly one month after Nixon announced his resignation, Ford issued the former president a “full, free and absolute” pardon for any crimes he committed while in office. The pardon was widely condemned at the time. Decades later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented its 2001 Profile in Courage Award to Gerald Ford for his 1974 pardon of Nixon. In pardoning Nixon, said the foundation, Ford placed his love of country ahead of his own political future and brought needed closure to the divisive Watergate affair. Ford left politics after losing the 1976 presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Ford died on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93.
Now for some stock and investing news-
A warm Brunch welcome to @Red Pill Investing for joining the Brunch crew! Looking forward to comments from RPI.
Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) race lower in early trading after the company didn't make the S&P 500 Index as part of the September quarterly rebalancing. "The profitability metrics and forecast likely was the swaying factor that might have excluded Tesla this time around. In a nutshell Tesla not getting into the S&P 500 will be a head scratcher to the bulls that viewed this as virtually a lock given all the parameters met," notes Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. $TSLA is down 12.44% premarket. Proof that there is no such thing as a "done deal" when it comes to matter like this.
Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA) announces that will General Motors (NYSE:GM) will be its strategic manufacturing partner Shares of Nikola are up 29.40% in premarket trading, while GM is 6.65% higher.
Recent reports suggest Japanese investing conglomerate SoftBank (OTCPK:OTCPK:SFTBY) had been loading up on options in tech stocks over the past several months and is now sitting on $4B in gains. With the positions "now known," SoftBank shares fell 7% in Tokyo on Monday, shedding about $9B in market cap. Others, like Benn Eifert, chief investment officer of hedge fund QVR Advisors, estimate the strategies pursued by institutions like SoftBank would have a minimal effect on market volatility. He said the real power is being exercised by day traders buying enormous amounts of call options on tech stocks, which have created a virtuous hedging and buying cycle pushing stocks upwards.
Production problems at a Boeing (NYSE:BA) 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina have prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to review quality control lapses potentially stretching back nearly a decade, WSJ reports, citing an internal government memo. Boeing reportedly has told regulators that a defect due to the quality lapse does not pose an immediate safety threat to Boeing's flagship fleet of Dreamliners, but the problem combined with another recently discovered assembly line defect caused Boeing to take last month's unusual move late in August to voluntarily tell airlines to ground eight of their 787s for immediate repairs.
Off to Google Finance and Market Watch!-
Back from Google Finance and Market Watch!
Where is Jon Corzine and is MF Global buying shares of $TSLA today?
Where is Marissa Mayer and will her online sports betting company buy DraftKings?
Where is Elizabeth Holmes and ...who even cares at this point?
Have a great day everyone. Stay safe out there.
This is the day The Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.