Wall Street Brunch- September 15

Summary

• Please keep all political comments out of the comments section. Thank you.
• Thank you to @SowingAlfalfa for daily contributions. Thank you to all who read and comment here!
• This Day in History brought to you by www.history.com.

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

On September 15, 1978, boxer Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, the first fighter ever to do so. Following his victory, Ali retired from boxing, only to make a brief comeback two years later. Ali, who once claimed he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” left the sport permanently in 1981. In June 1979, Ali announced he was retiring from boxing. On October 2, 1980, he returned to the ring and fought heavyweight champ Larry Holmes, who knocked him out in the 11th round. After losing to Trevor Berbick on December 11, 1981, Ali left the ring for the last time, with a record of 56 wins, five losses and 37 knockouts. In 1984, he was revealed to have Parkinson’s disease. Ali died on June 3, 2016. Spinks retired from boxing in 1995 with a record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 14 knockouts.

On this day in 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, the British launch a major offensive against the Germans, employing tanks for the first time in history. At Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 or so primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. However, General Douglas Haig, commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw the promise of this new instrument of war and ordered the war department to produce hundreds more. On July 1, the British launched a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man’s-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history. 

After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were extinguished for every 100 yards gained on the Germans. Even Britain’s September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of mass slaughter. Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total advance of just five miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were more than 650,000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the western front did eventually contribute to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.

On September 15, 2008, the venerable Wall Street brokerage firm Lehman Brothers seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the largest victim of the subprime mortgage crisis that would devastate financial markets and contribute to the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy early on the morning of September 15. The firm declared $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in debts, making it the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. That day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 500 points, its steepest decline since reopening after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Lehman’s collapse sent financial markets into turmoil for weeks, leading many to question the federal government’s decision to let the bank fail. After Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, Barclays agreed to purchase the firm’s North American investment banking and capital markets businesses, saving some 10,000 jobs. As James Peck, the judge who approved the deal, put it in court: “I have to approve this transaction because it is the only available transaction. Lehman Brothers became a victim, in effect the only true icon to fall in a tsunami that has befallen the credit markets. This is the most momentous bankruptcy hearing I’ve ever sat through. It can never be deemed precedent for future cases. It’s hard for me to imagine a similar emergency.”

Now for some stock and investing news-

Futures looking like they might be bright enough for shades today. Time will tell. 

Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA) is 6.4% lower postmarket on word from Bloomberg that the SEC is examining the company to determine the merits of Hindenburg's allegations of deceit. Hindenburg's Sept. 10 report referred to Nikola as an "intricate fraud"; The vehicle maker earlier briefed the SEC with point-by-point replies to the allegations.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is buying the new headquarters of Recreational Equipment Inc. - REI - near Seattle, for $367.6M. REI never even got to move in to the 400,000-square-foot space, as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way, and the company looked to cash out with employees working remotely.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors and customers today will be watching the company's annual September iPhone event, which starts at 1 p.m. ET, but probably won't feature the iPhone at all. Calling it "Time Flies," the company is likely to reveal its latest watch and an updated iPad, but delay its 5G phone (the most anticipated since 2014). There are also rumblings of a bundled subscription service called "Apple One" that would give users a discount and the ability to manage all their subscriptions in one place. Apple has enjoyed a strong 2020 rally, with shares up 54% on the year, though the stock has pulled back 16% from a Sept. 1 closing high due to a broad tech selloff. AAPL +2% premarket.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) will reveal the GMC Hummer EV online on Oct. 20, marking one of the cornerstones in the automaker's $20B push into electric vehicles.

Automaker Daimler AG and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz USA have agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve allegations they cheated on emissions tests, officials said Monday.  The U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and the California attorney general's office said Daimler violated environmental laws by using so-called "defeat device software" to circumvent emissions testing. In doing so, the companies sold roughly 250,000 cars and vans between 2009 and 2016 with diesel engines that didn't meet state and federal standards. 

Where is Jon Corzine and will MF Global be buying shares of $AAPL today?

Where is Marissa Mayer and will her online sports betting company make a deal with ESPN?

Where is Elizabeth Holmes and does anyone care any more?

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.