Wall Street Brunch- February 9

Summary

• Please refrain from comments that are purely political. Thank you.
• Thanks to all who read, comment, and discuss here!
• History brought to you by www.history.com.
• Have a terrific Tuesday everyone. Make it a great day!

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

On February 9, 1971, pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio once called Paige “the best and fastest pitcher I’ve ever faced.” Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama, most likely on July 7, 1906, although the exact date remains a mystery. He earned his nickname, Satchel, as a boy when he earned money carrying passengers’ bags at train stations. Baseball was segregated when Paige started playing baseball professionally in the 1920s, so he spent most of his career pitching for Negro League teams around the United States. During the winter season, he pitched for teams in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As a barnstorming player who traveled thousands of miles each season and played for whichever team met his asking price, he pitched an estimated 2,500 games, had 300 shut-outs and 55 no-hitters. In one month in 1935, he reportedly pitched 29 consecutive games. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The following year, Paige also entered the majors, signing with the Cleveland Indians and becoming, at age 42, baseball’s oldest rookie. He helped the Indians win the pennant that year and later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City A’s. Paige retired from the majors in 1953, but returned in 1965 to pitch three innings for the Kansas City A’s. He was 59 at the time, making him the oldest person ever to play in the Major Leagues. In addition to being famous for his talent and longevity, Paige was also well-known for his sense of humor and colorful observations on life, including: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you” and “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” He died June 8, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri.

On this day in 1942, Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving time—called at the time “war time.” Daylight saving time, suggested by President Roosevelt, was imposed to conserve fuel, and could be traced back to World War I, when Congress imposed one standard time on the United States to enable the country to better utilize resources, following the European model. The 1918 Standard Time Act was meant to be in effect for only seven months of the year—and was discontinued nationally after the war. But individual states continued to turn clocks ahead one hour in spring and back one hour in fall. The World War II legislation imposed daylight saving time for the entire nation for the entire year. It was repealed Sept. 30, 1945, when individual states once again imposed their own “standard” time. It was not until 1966 that Congress passed legislation setting a standard time that permanently superseded local habits.

Now for some stock and investing news-

Global stock markets are still in an upbeat mood after U.S. benchmarks set fresh records yesterday. Investors have renewed confidence that a new round of stimulus spending will bolster the U.S. economy, while upbeat earnings from large U.S. multinationals have calmed some of the anxiety over the manic GameStop-Reddit trading. More than 80% of companies that have reported results so far have beaten consensus expectations.

It is not all smooth roads for Tesla in China as officials with the State Administration for Market Regulation and other government departments recently met with Tesla's local subsidiaries to discuss publicized reports of vehicle problems The automaker also recalled more than 36K vehicles in China due to a touchscreen issue. Not sure what took over 24 hours for this news to make to Seeking Alpha, but thanks for keeping us all in the loop. Looking for more Tesla news? Check out Trending News. Plenty of updates for all.

Bitcoin hit a fresh record above $48,000 on Tuesday, a day after Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) invested $1.5B in the cryptocurrency and, will accept the digital token as a form of payment for its electric cars. Crypto-linked stocks soar in premarket trading. Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ:MARA) surges 21.6%, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) +14.9%, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) +12.6%; Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN) +12.6%; Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT) +14.5%; Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC).

Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) has established an agreement with Grow Pharma to import and distribute its medical cannabis products into the U.K. Tilray expects to have a range of GMP-certified, medical cannabis products available for patients in the U.K. by March 2021.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) is set to buy Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) in a deal that will offer a big expansion to EA's player network of half a billion-plus. The all-cash deal values Glu at $2.1B in enterprise value, with Glu shareholders catching a 36% premium to Friday's closing price. The merger means a mobile portfolio for the combined company of more than 15 top live services with $1.32B in bookings over the past 12 months. On closing, the deal will be immediately accretive to EA's net bookings and is expected to grow underlying profitability beginning in its first year.

Usually by this point on the Monday after the Super Bowl, we'd have had at least preliminary ratings numbers in hand, giving us an idea of exactly how many viewers (close to 100M) watched the biggest television event of the year.  Nielsen has indicated that there won't be figures until tomorrow morning. And that has many industry observers thinking the outcome for the NFL and CBS (VIAC, VIACA) could be even darker than feared. More to come tomorrow, so it seems.

Where is Jon Corzine and is MF Global buying more Bitcoin today?

Where is Marissa Mayer and will her next app ever be released?

Where is Elizabeth Holmes and how long before her massive fraud trial finally starts?

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.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.