V-Shaped Recovery For Investors; FOMO -- August 3, 2020

Microsoft, Apple lift NASDAQ to 29th record close of the year. What will propel the NASDAQ to hit 11,000? FOMO.

Clearing out the in-box after another incredible day in the market:

• Levi to accelerate its consumer strategy shift, link here.
• Eurozone suffers 40.3% annualized contraction -- greatest drop on record.
• Caterpillar sales sage 31% in coronavirus slowdown.
• Refiners retrench as demand for gasoline, jet fuel shrivels, link here. Can anyone spell Mandan Refinery?
  

The dollar as reserve currency. Anyone reading the business pages know there is a lot of talk about the possibility that the US dollar will no longer be the global reserve currency. Okay. I'm sure a lot of folks bought into that. To say the least, I was quite surprised when I saw this:

Covid supercharges Federal Reserve as backup lender to the world.

Say what? The WSJ said it.

My hunch is that governments around the world are not only looking at the US as the the lender of last resort, but they are also looking to the US for guidance. I would assume -- well, let's not assume -- let's look it up:

• since 1969, when the award was first given, there have been 84 men and women so honored
• wow, talk about white privilege (is putting something in black bold the same as blackface?); if there was a person of color, I missed him or her; there were a couple of Indian laureates
• more than half of the awards have gone to Americans
• as of 2018, the institution with the most affiliated laureates in economic sciences: the University of Chicago, which has 32 affiliated laureates;
• since 2004, in only three years did an American not win or share in the prize
• the guy with the best beard: Robert J. Aumann, US/Israel, 2005;

By the way, if "we" get through this "Covid thing," my nominees for the 2020 economics award would be a joint award to Steve Mnuchin and Jay Powell for "melding economic theory with practical applications to save the global economy."

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Endurance: GM Electric

Lordstown Motors to merge with DiamondPeak, link here;

• DiamondPeak: a "blank check" company -- a SPAC
• DPHC shares surged
• the combined company will take the name Lordstown Motor, ticker symbol: RIDE
• the deal
• $1.6 billion equity value
• $500 million, private investment
• $75 million, GM
• others: Fidelity, Wellington, BlackRock
• operations:
• last November, Lordstown purchased GM's Lordstown assembly plant, a 6.2 million square foot facility capable of producing 600,000 electric vehicles annually
• in June, Lordstown unveiled a prototype Endurance pickup truck and has received more than 27,000 preorders representing more than $1.4 billion of potential revenue from commercial fleet customers
• initial production of the Endurance electric truck is expected in the second half of 2021

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Preparing For School Testing

Sophia took an on-site computer test last week for "grade" placement. In anticipation of the test, in which she was required to wear a mask, we practiced at home for two days prior to the day of the test.