1) American businesses have suffered stress that is breaking many, including some in the grocery chains. Like some popular restaurant chains, some grocery chains were filing for bankruptcy before the pandemic, but the virus crisis forced others over the brink. Five specialty and health forward chains have been forced to file for chapter 11. They are Earth Fare, Lucky’s Market, Fairway Market, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s. The niche marketeers are finding it very difficult to survive in these changing economic hard times.

2) The U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Stout has set a new record for consecutive days at sea when it reached 208 days at sea on the 26th of September. The previous record was 207 days, held by the USS Eisenhower and USS San Jacinto, both records set this year too. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the Navy to cancel port visits to prevent sailors from being exposed to the virus while ashore. More than 1,000 sailors were infected with the virus on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the pandemic, with one sailor dying. Furthermore, the carrier was off line for weeks anchored in Guam until the virus ran its course. While the elimination of port calls and longer sea deployments has arrested the virus, it has put more stress on the crew members.

3) The ‘indoor food grower’ AppHarvest is going public by joining with Novus Capital Corp. (NOVS) and will soon be traded on the Nasdaq exchange. AppHarvest is developing large scale, efficient indoor farming technology, and their first farm is a 60 acre controlled environment in Kentucky. This facility is within a days drive of 70% of the American population and is now producing tomatoes. Right now, 60% of all fresh tomatoes in American are imported. Controlled environment agriculture facilities use far fewer resources to grow far more produce, however this method of agriculture requires far more capital, where conventional farms are themselves capital intensive enterprises.

4) Stock market closings for – 29 SEP 20:

Dow 27,452.66 down 131.40
Nasdaq 11,085.25 down 32.28
S&P 500 3,335.47 down 16.13

10 Year Yield: down at 0.64%

Oil: down at $39.16

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