Wall Street Brunch- September 17

Summary

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• This Day in History brought to you by www.history.com.

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

Beginning early on the morning of September 17, 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland’s Antietam Creek in the bloodiest single day in American military history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper’s Ferry. Fighting began in the foggy dawn hours of September 17. As savage and bloody combat continued for eight hours across the region, the Confederates were pushed back but not beaten, despite sustaining some 15,000 casualties. By the time the sun went down, both armies still held their ground, despite staggering combined casualties–nearly 23,000 of the 100,000 soldiers engaged, including more than 3,600 dead. McClellan’s center never moved forward, leaving a large number of Union troops that did not participate in the battle. On the morning of September 18, both sides gathered their wounded and buried their dead. That night, Lee turned his forces back to Virginia.

In introducing them at the Monterey Pop Festival three months earlier, Eric Burdon of the Animals had offered high praise for the up-and-coming British rock band the Who, promising the crowd “A group that will destroy you in more ways than one.” A substandard audio setup that day prevented the Who from unleashing the full sonic assault for which they were already becoming famous, but their high-energy, instrument-destroying antics inspired the next act, Jimi Hendrix, to burn his guitar and announced to the tens of thousands of Festival-goers the arrival of a powerful new force in rock and roll. The rest of America would get its introduction on September 17, 1967, when the Who ended an already explosive, nationally televised performance of “My Generation” with a literal bang that singed Pete Townshend’s hair, left shrapnel in Keith Moon’s arm and momentarily knocked The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour off the air. Keith Moon was already in the habit of placing an explosive charge in one his two bass drums to detonate during Pete Townshend’s guitar-smashing at the end of each Who performance. But for their Smothers Brothers appearance, Moon packed several times the normal amount of explosives into his drum kit, and when he set it off, a gigantic explosion rocked the set as a cloud of white smoke engulfed Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey. Though bassist John Entwistle never lost his cool, Daltrey practically flew downstage and when Townshend emerged from the smoke, his hair was almost literally blown to one side of his head. Though the incredible explosion has been rumored to have caused Pete Townshend’s eventual near-deafness, credit for that should probably go instead to the Who’s pioneering use of stacked Marshall amplifiers as a means of achieving maximum volume during their live performances.

On this day in 1394, King Charles VI of France orders the expulsion of all Jews from his kingdom. The culmination of a series of anti-Semitic orders from the monarchs of France, the order outlived the monarchy and remains one of the major contributing factors to the tiny percentage of the French population that identifies as Jewish. For a time, the Crown was happier to have Jews in its lands paying taxes, but in 1394 Charles VI suddenly demanded they leave once again. France's Jews were given a bit of time to sell to their possessions before being escorted out of French lands. There was not a major Jewish population in France again until the 1700s, when Jews fleeing violence and discrimination further East arrived in Alsace and Lorraine. By the eve of the revolution, there were roughly 40,000 Jews in France. Over the course of the turbulent years that followed 1789, the newly “enlightened” governments gradually restored Jews’ rights to live in France, but they continued to face discrimination and their numbers were further decimated during the Nazi occupation of France. Today, roughly one percent of France is Jewish.

Now for stock and investing news-

Futures not looking bright enough for shades.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) ended a blowout first day of trading up 112% to $253.93 with a $70.4B valuation, five times higher than the $12.4B valuation during the last private funding round in February and larger than the market values of Uber and Dell.

The Dakota Access oil pipeline looks to stay in service at least through December under a new court briefing schedule, as the D.C. federal court will not be prepared to rule until late December at the earliest on the effort to shut the pipeline. According to the proposed schedule, tribes opposed to Dakota Access would have until Oct. 16 to file a new request to shutter it, lawyers for the Army Corps of Engineers and pipeline operator Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) would have until Nov. 20 to respond, and the tribes would have until Dec. 18 for final briefs.

A new filing by LVMH (OTCPK:OTCPK:LVMHF) in the Delaware Chancery Court opposes fast-tracking a ruling that would decide whether the French luxury group had proper legal grounds for torpedoing a takeover of Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF). A judge previously set a Sept. 21 hearing (at Tiffany's request) for an expedited ruling. "If LVMH were confident in its legal position, it would have no reason to oppose an expedited trial schedule," Tiffany Chairman Roger Farah declared, adding that it was another attempt by the would-be buyer to "run out the clock” on the deal, which has a November 24 deadline.

Nikola bulls are hoping the share price has found support following news that both the SEC and the Department of Justice are probing the company, but former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson believes the ultimate outcome for Nikola and its co-founder Trevor Milton will be a worst-case scenario.  “I agree, and confidently predict that General Motors will end the partnership with Nikola that it announced last week, Nikola's stock will collapse, and Milton will end up behind bars for securities fraud,” Tilson said. 

Where is Jon Corzine and will MF Global be buyers of Nikola today?

Where is Marissa Mayer and will she ever return to Yahoo?

Where is Elizabeth Holmes and how are her mental disease tests going?

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.