Wednesday May.27, 2020

🚀 SpaceX: Historic Launch Day

_Wondering if this thing has Ludicrous Mode_
_Wondering if this thing has Ludicrous Mode_

Hey Snackers,

Your least favorite bird may be flying undercover: India has detained a "pigeon suspected of being trained as a Pakistani spy” on the Kashmir border. The name's Pigeon. James, Pigeon.

Stocks surged and the Dow was resuscitated back to early March levels as economic activity continues to pick up across the US. Major corona-conomy losers like Carnival and United Airlines saw the biggest stock jumps.

Launch

Today, SpaceX will be the 1st private company to try to send humans to space

To infinity, and Elon'd!... Cancel your Netflix plans — we’re tuning into NASA Live. Today at 4:33 PM ET, SpaceX plans to launch its first ever human passengers into space on the Crew Dragon (sounds like an EDM DJ — actually a reusable spacecraft). The Elon Musk-founded and CEO'd space company (valued at around $36B) is making history:

  • For the first time ever, a private spacecraft (aka, not gov-owned) will be sending people to space — the Crew Dragon was developed by SpaceX as part of a NASA initiative to get companies' help with sending people to the International Space Station.
  • For the first time in almost 10 years, astronauts will be launched into orbit from US soil. SpaceX has spent six years prepping for this moment — last year, the Crew Dragon successfully made it to the ISS (without humans onboard).

Soyuz saying you don't need us?... Since 2011, NASA astronauts have bummed rides to the space station on Russia’s Soyuz capsule, paying a neat $80M/passenger (no SpaceMiles program yet). So NASA awarded billions to SpaceX and Boeing to develop a non-Russian-government option. SpaceX finished first.

One small step for man, one giant leap for capitalism?... If the intrepid launch goes well, Elon's dream of colonizing Mars (or, at least, commercializing space travel) may not be so far-flung.

  • Today, "space customers" mainly consist of governments paying to launch cargo, satellites, and people into space.
  • In the not-so-distant future, space companies hope to service commercial customers — Virgin Galactic already sold spaceflight tickets for $250K.
  • One day, space tourism could be a major profit puppy for companies — timeshare on Mars?
Open

50 US states started reopening their economies — markets love it (so far)

Summertime, and the living is... Uneasy AF, but not as uneasy as before. As the first day of summer (June 20th) approaches, temperatures are heating up and states are loosening up: two months after lockdown started, all 50 states have begun some form of reopening. The "new normal" is slowly reverting back to a "new but kinda familiar" normal. Americans are:

  • Driving more: Requests for driving directions on Apple Maps have returned to January levels (though public transport is still abysmal).
  • Traveling more: Passengers per flight quadrupled since April — on Thursday, the TSA reported the highest number of screenings since March (but still 88% way less than last year).

It's not just the travel stats... Investor and consumer optimism is shining through some key indicators:

  • Consumer confidence (our relationship status with the economy) got a slight boost in May as some businesses started reopening.
  • Weekly mortgage applications are down only 1.5% from last year (a month ago, they were down 35%) despite 40M Americans being unemployed.
  • The S&P 500, which measures the stock prices of the 500 largest American companies, is just 11% off its record high.

Optimism should be tempered with caution... Reports of new COVID-19 cases are slowing or levelling off in most states. Twenty states reported an increase last week (could also be a result of more testing). Optimism is also fueled by 118 potential vaccines in the works. But the WHO warned about a "second peak" of the virus — and lifting restrictions makes transmission more likely...and put this month's economic progress at risk.

What else we’re Snackin’

  • Renegade: TikTok's Google Play store rating drops from 4.5 to 1.2 stars overnight after a controversial video (then Google deleted millions of negative reviews).
  • iOpen: Apple plans to have 130 out of its 271 US stores reopened by the end of the week.
  • Dunk: The NBA may resume playing its season at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando (Mickey may host as soon as July).
  • Fly: Germany agreed to a $9.8B bailout of Lufthansa — the German government gets a 20% stake in the airline if the deal is approved.
  • Robo: The automation trend is accelerating in the corona-conomy — more retailers are turning to robots to churn out their orders.

Wednesday

  • The Fed's Beige Book gives us the central bank's take on the economy
  • Earnings expected from Workday

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Alphabet, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple

ID: 1197667

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