Incredible Splashdown
This was a big week for SpaceX. SpaceX and NASA brought astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley back to Earth from the International Space Station safely and exactly according to plan. They splashed down off the western coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon. It was exciting to watch. Like all astronauts, these two have amazing backgrounds. Behnken holds a Ph.D in mechanical engineering and the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Hurley is also an engineer and a heavily decorated test pilot. Their humility is inspiring. There were a number of firsts including the first splashdown of an American crew spacecraft in 45 years. Later in the week, SpaceX’s big Mars-colonizing spacecraft had a successful test flight.
The Paper Ballot Chase
The paper ballot stories will get more and more exciting, to put it mildly. Bob Reby and I will be doing a third webinar on the subject in late September. The Zoom event will be hosted by Danbury Library. Stay tuned for details. The paper based system has many faults. Unfortunately, there is not enough time to get a mobile voting system in place by November. Bob and I will discuss the issues next month.
The Birthday Walk
It felt good to turn 75 this week. My wife asked if I felt 75, and I said, no, I feel 85! Just kidding. I used to run marathons. Four of them wore out one of my knees. Twelve years ago, I had one of the knees replaced. With Fitbit and my Apple watch I have counted steps on the new knee, currently 32 million. No running, just walking. Yesterday, I walked 3.1 miles, and in the hills of Pennsylvania, it was quite a workout for me. A friend of mine in Florida reminds me the key to health is to “keep moving”. I’ll do my best.
Wall Street and the MAGFA Stocks
Despite the congressional hearings and economic woes, the tech heavyweights all roseThe market value of Apple skyrocketed to just shy of $2 trillion. Bitcoin had a 20% rise. I added Bitcoin market cap which is now above $200 billion.
The five giant tech company market caps now represent 25% of the market cap of the U.S. S&P 500. Still mind boggling. Congress is on their trail, but the hearings did not yield much. I would say the companies dodged the bullets really well.
| John’s MAGFA Market Cap (08/07/20 4:00pm ET) | |||||
| Closing | Market Cap | Last | Change in | % | |
| Price | Trillions | Week | Billions | Change | |
| Microsoft | $212.48 | $1.608 | $1.552 | $56.00 | 3.6% |
| Apple | $444.45 | $1.900 | $1.842 | $58.00 | 3.1% |
| $1,494.49 | $1.018 | $1.015 | $3.00 | 0.3% | |
| $268.44 | $0.765 | $0.724 | $41.00 | 5.7% | |
| Amazon | $3,167.46 | $1.587 | $1.578 | $9.00 | 0.6% |
| Total | $6.878 | $6.711 | $167.00 | 2.5% | |
| S&P 500 7/31/2020 | $27.1 | $25.6 | 5.5% | ||
| MAGFA/S&P 500 | 25.4% | 24.8% | 2.5% | ||
| Bitcoin | $11,519 | $213.4 | |||
| Boeing | $170.01 | $96.0 | $99.1 | -$3.2 | -3.2% |
| Royal Caribbean | $52.11 | $11.2 | $11.4 | -$0.2 | -1.9% |
| Tesla | $1,452.71 | $270.7 | $278.4 | -$7.7 | -2.8% |
| Uber | $32.91 | $57.5 | $56.4 | $1.0 | 1.8% |
| Zoom | $258.73 | $73.0 | $69.6 | $3.4 | 4.9% |
Note: These six are in billions not trillions | |||||
Note: My father gave me the following investment advice many years ago, “Don’t give any, and don’t take any.” Wise man. I am not recommending buying or selling any of the stocks, startups, crypto, or indexes I write about.