US FINANCIAL MARKET

Stocks Rise, Bond Yields Fall After Mixed Jobs: Markets Wrap – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Wall Street saw a reversal of the moves of the past few days, with stocks rising and bond yields falling after a mixed jobs report did little to alter bets on the outlook for Federal Reserve policy.
• The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%.
• There was something for every bull and bear in the labor-market figures, with payrolls growing at a softer-than-estimated pace and wages topping forecasts.
• With 47 days to go before the next Fed decision — and so many other economic reports in between — swap market bets on the September meeting were roughly steady.
• It wasn’t easy for stocks to find solid footing after the data, but a slightly more bullish sentiment took over on Friday, with the S&P 500 halting a three-day drop.
• Another reason that could explain the instability was the fact that two of the benchmark’s biggest companies were going opposite ways.
• Amazon.com jumped on a bullish revenue forecast, while Apple’s dipped below the historic $3 trillion mark after a disappointing outlook.
• The bond market also saw an unwinding of the moves of the past few sessions, with Treasuries climbing across the curve.
• Benchmark 10-year yields fell eight basis points to 4.1%, sliding from the highest level since November.
• The dollar retreated against all of its developed-market peers.
• Nonfarm payrolls increased 187,000 last month following a similar increase in June, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday.
• The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%. Average hourly earnings were up 0.4% from June and 4.4% from a year earlier, both stronger than forecast.
• Fed Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said US employment gains are slowing in an orderly manner and there is no need to hike rates further to ease inflation.
• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2%.
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.5%.
• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.09%.
• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.9% to $82.30 a barrel.
• Gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,977.20 an ounce.

Apple Sluggishness to Persist This Quarter as Slump Takes Toll – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Apple posted its third straight quarter of declining sales and predicted a similar performance in the current period, hurt by an industrywide slump that has sapped demand for phones, computers and tablets.
• Though Apple’s overall revenue of $81.8 billion came in just above Wall Street estimates last quarter — helped by record-setting services sales — iPhone demand was weaker than predicted.
• Sales of the iPhone, Apple’s biggest moneymaker, slipped 2.4% to $39.7 billion last quarter, compared with a $39.8 billion estimate.
• The iPad, meanwhile, suffered a sales decline of 20% last quarter. That business generated $5.79 billion, versus calls for about $6.33 billion.
• The Mac is showing signs of recovering from a deep downturn.
• Though its sales fell 7.3% to $6.84 billion, that topped an average estimate of $6.37 billion.
• The wearables, home and accessories segment, which includes the Apple Watch and AirPods, brought in $8.28 billion.
• That missed estimates of $8.38 billion.
• Services revenue was the bright spot, climbing 8.2% to $21.2 billion. That topped estimates of $20.8 billion.
• The growth was “driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in the statement.
• After the company reported a revenue decline of 1.4% in the fiscal third quarter, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on a conference call that Apple’s performance would be similar this period.

Amazon Surges After Jassy Spurs Sales Growth, Reins in Costs – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy pulled off a financial double play this earnings season: generating strong revenue growth from the core e-commerce business while cutting the pace of spending.
• Second-quarter revenue increased 11% to $134.4 billion, the company said in a statement, topping estimates.
• Sales in the online stores category increased 4% to $53 billion.
• Before the results, investors were particularly concerned about Amazon Web Services, the cloud business.
• While growth slowed for a sixth straight quarter, the unit still produced more revenue than Wall Street expected — surging 12% to $22.1 billion.
• Advertising sales rose 22% to $10.7 billion and seller services revenue jumped 18% to $32.3 billion in the quarter.
• The company’s operating expenses increased 7.5% in the three months ended June 30, the slowest rate since at least 2012.
• Sales and marketing costs rose just 6.5%, after years of increasing by as much as a third.
• As a result, operating income more than doubled to $7.7 billion in the quarter.
• The company projected revenue will be $138 billion to $143 billion in the current period ending in September, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $138.3 billion.
• Operating income will range from $5.5 billion to $8.5 billion.
• Analysts, on average, projected $5.41 billion.

Dorsey-led Block raises 2023 earnings outlook after Q2 beats estimates – Reuters, 8/4/2023

• Block reported a rise in second-quarter revenue on Thursday as payment volumes at the fintech giant led by Jack Dorsey held up against a tough economic backdrop.
• The company reported net revenue of $5.53 billion in the three months ended June, compared with $4.4 billion a year ago, beating Refinitiv estimates.
• The fintech, which offers merchant payment services and an app that lets people trade cryptocurrency, said gross profit in the quarter rose 27% to come in at $1.87 billion.
• Cash App, the company’s mainstay online payments service, increased gross profit by 37% to $968 million, while its Square business reported gross profit of $888 million, up 18% from last year.
• On an adjusted basis, Block earned 39 cents in the second-quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of 36 cents, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
• It also revised its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization outlook for 2023 to $1.5 billion up from an earlier forecast of $1.3 billion.

Coinbase revenue beat estimates, executives expect to win battle with SEC – Reuters, 8/4/2023

• Coinbase Global beat second-quarter revenue expectations on Thursday on higher interest income while its executives said the crypto exchange expects to win its legal battle with the U.S. securities regulator.
• The company and its rival Binance were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June.
• It alleged that Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities without registering them with the regulator.
• Coinbase reported revenue of $707.9 million in the second quarter, beating estimates of $663 million, according to Refinitiv data.
• Interest income in the quarter surged to $201.4 million from $32.5 million a year ago.
• Trading volumes in the quarter dropped to $92 billion from $217 billion a year ago, while its loss narrowed to $97 million from $1.09 billion in the same period in 2022.
• The crypto exchange expects third-quarter subscription and services revenue of at least $300 million, compared with estimates of $336.15 million.

Airbnb reports continued deceleration in nights and experiences booked – CNBC, 8/4/2023

• Airbnb shares slid in extended trading Thursday after the short-term home-rental company reported a smaller sum of nights and experiences booked in the second quarter than analysts had projected.
• Revenue: $2.48 billion, vs. $2.42 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• The company reported $19.1 billion in gross booking value for the quarter.
• That was up 12% from the second quarter of last year and above the $18.99 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount.
• Airbnb said it had 115.1 million nights and experiences booked during the quarter, up almost 11%, but less than the 117.6 million StreetAccount consensus.
• Gross booking value per night, at $166.01, was up 1% year over year.
• Earnings: 98 cents per share, vs. 78 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv
• With respect to guidance, Airbnb called for $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion in third-quarter revenue, or 14% to 18% growth.
• Analysts polled by Refinitiv had been looking for $3.22 billion.
• Management called for a “modest” sequential acceleration in nights and experiences booked.

Gilead Recovers as Quarterly Revenue Reassures Investors – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Gilead Sciences shares erased a decline as a strong quarterly performance more than offset a lower profit outlook amid litigation costs.
• In June, a California jury found that Gilead and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. didn’t engage in an anticompetitive conspiracy to delay generic versions of the HIV drugs.
• However, before the case went to trial, the companies reached a last-minute deal with major pharmacy chains and direct purchases.
• Gilead paid $525 million in settlements, according to a second-quarter earnings release, which shaved 32 cents off of per-share earnings.
• Revenue was $6.6 billion in the quarter, above the average Wall Street estimate of $6.44 billion.
• Adjusted earnings for the second quarter were $1.34 a share, the Foster City, California-based drug company said in a statement, below analysts’ average estimate of $1.64.
• For the full year, Gilead now expects adjusted earnings will be $6.45 to $6.80 a share, down from earlier guidance of $6.60 to $7.

Amgen 2Q Profit Up as Revenue Rises 6% – Market Watch, 8/4/2023

• Amgen posted higher profit and revenue in the second quarter, helped by an increase in product sales across most therapeutic categories.
• Total revenue rose 6% to $6.99 billion from $6.59 billion in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of $6.66 billion.
• Product sales growth was boosted by 11% volume growth, partially offset by 2% lower net selling prices and 1% lower inventory levels.
• Adjusted for one-time items, Amgen said earnings were $5 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $4.49 cents a share.

EOG Resources cuts full year output forecast after drop in quarterly profit – Reuters, 8/4/2023

• U.S. shale producer EOG Resources cut its full year production forecast after reporting a 10% drop in second-quarter profit on the back of weaker oil and gas prices.
• Average sales prices for its gas more than halved to $2.20 per thousand cubic feet in the April-June quarter, while those for oil fell 33% to $74.97 per barrel, the company reported.
• Production rose 5.4% to 970,300 boepd in the quarter, above its previous estimate.
• Net income, excluding one time items, fell to $1.46 billion, or $2.49 per share, from $1.61 billion, or $2.74 per share, a year earlier.
• That beat analysts’ estimates of $2.32 per share, according to Refinitiv data.
• The company lowered its full-year production forecast to a range of 965,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to 991,500 boepd, below a prior outlook of between 944,000 boepd and 1.03 million boepd, as it cut its natural gas output estimate for the year by 2.6%.

Fortinet cuts revenue forecast on weak IT spending, shares plummet – Reuters, 8/4/2023

• Cybersecurity firm Fortinet cut its annual revenue forecast on Thursday as spending from enterprise clients remained tight amid a turbulent economy, sending its shares down more than 17% after the bell.
• It posted total revenue of $1.29 billion for the second quarter and missed expectations of $1.30 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
• It earned adjusted profit of 38 cents per share, which beat expectations of 34 cents.
• Fortinet now expects annual revenue between $5.35 billion and $5.45 billion compared with a prior view of $5.43 billion to $5.49 billion.
• It expects annual operating margin to range between 25.25% and 26.25% compared to 27.3% in 2022.

Booking Revenue Beats Estimates, Sees Record Summer Travel – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Booking Holdings reported second-quarter revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, reflecting strong demand for travel despite higher prices for flights and accommodations.
• The online travel company said revenue increased 27% to $5.46 billion, surpassing analysts’ average prediction of $5.17 billion.
• Total gross bookings for the second quarter, which includes all travel services booked by customers net of cancellations, increased 15% to $39.7 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $38.1 billion.
• “We have seen these strong trends continue into July, and we are currently preparing for what we expect to be a record summer travel season in the third quarter.”
• Earlier Thursday, Expedia gave a more muted view of the travel industry, reporting revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, sending its shares down 16%.

DraftKings Sales Beat Forecast, Company Raises Guidance for Year – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• DraftKings shares rose after the online sportsbook posted second-quarter sales that beat expectations and it raised its forecast for the year.
• Revenue in the second quarter jumped 88% to $875 million, beating analysts’ estimates of $758 million, as the company signed new customers and took bets on more lucrative products.
• The number of monthly unique players grew 44% from a year ago to 2.1 million in the quarter, in line with analysts forecasts.
• The company said it would earn as much as $175 million on sales of $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter.
• The Boston-based company now projects sales of up to $3.54 billion for 2023, according to a statement Thursday.
• In May, it projected annual revenue of up to $3.24 billion.
• It now sees an adjusted annual loss of $190 million to $220 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
• It previously projected a loss of $290 million to $340 million.

Icahn Enterprises Plunges After Cutting Payout in Half – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Carl Icahn slashed his company’s quarterly payouts in half and pledged to “stick to our knitting” in another substantive move acknowledging complaints raised by short-seller Hindenburg Research earlier this year.
• Shares of Icahn Enterprises plummeted more than 30% in premarket trading in New York on Friday after the firm said it will pay out $1 per depositary unit, down from the previous $2 a unit.
• The company’s second-quarter loss more than doubled from a year earlier, and Carl Icahn pledged a “reset” with the firm reducing its short bets and focusing on the activism that made him a famed investor.
• “We believe strongly that our current portfolio will yield additional winners and generate significant upside ahead,” Icahn wrote in a letter to investors.
• Icahn blamed the “misleading and self-serving Hindenburg report” for its latest struggles, while proving prescient one of the short seller’s central claims: that the firm’s dividend was unsustainable.

UAW Demands 40% Pay Hike in Labor Talks With Detroit Automakers – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• The United Auto Workers union is pressing the Detroit car companies to give its factory workers a 40% pay hike in the next labor contract, an increase that would be the largest in recent memory.
• The union conveyed this demand to the automakers this week, along with a list of other items it plans to push for at the bargaining table.
• The UAW is negotiating new four-year labor agreements for about 150,000 hourly workers at General Motors, Ford Motor and Jeep-maker Stellantis.
• Currently, unionized factory workers at the Detroit car companies start at about $18 an hour.
• The top wage, achieved over a period of years, is about $32 an hour.
• The 40% pay hike would be a general increase over the life of the next four-year contract.
• It would be broken up into a 20% increase upon the contract’s ratification, and four additional 5% wage increases given each year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Nikola Hires GM Veteran for Top Role at Troubled EV Maker – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Nikola is tapping a former General Motors vice chairman to serve as its chief executive officer, replacing the current CEO after less than a year of running the electric truck maker.
• Steve Girsky, Nikola’s chairman, will take over as CEO of the troubled manufacturer that he helped take public three years ago.
• Lohscheller is stepping down “due to a family health matter,” Nikola said.
• He’ll depart the board at the end of the month and will remain in an advisory capacity through September.
• Girsky, who is perhaps best known for his role helping GM after bankruptcy, was head of the special purpose acquisition company that took Nikola public via a reverse merger in 2020.

US ECONOMY & POLITICS

US Wage Growth, Lower Unemployment Underpin Solid Jobs Market – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• US employment increased at a solid pace in July while wages rose at a faster-than-expected clip, consistent with sustained labor demand that’s at the root of renewed momentum in the economy.
• Nonfarm payrolls increased 187,000 last month following a similar advance in June, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday.
• The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 3.5%, one of the lowest readings in decades.
• Average hourly earnings were up 0.4% from June and 4.4% from a year earlier, both stronger than forecast.

• The advance in payrolls reflected an acceleration in employment at service providers, over half of which came from health care.
• Hiring was also strong within financial activities and construction.
• The overall participation rate — the share of the population that is working or looking for work — held at 62.6% in July, still the highest since March 2020.
• However, for those ages 25-54, it declined for the first time since late last year, largely due to women leaving the labor force.
• The average workweek fell to 34.3 hours, matching the lowest since the onset of the pandemic.
• The underemployment rate, a broader measure of joblessness that includes those who prefer full-time work, improved in July.
• The employment-to-population ratio — the share of the population that is working — rose to match the highest level since early 2020.
• That reflected an increase for women.

Fed’s Bostic Says Labor Market Is Slowing and There’s No Need to Hike More – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said US employment gains are slowing in an orderly manner and there is no need to hike rates further to ease inflation.
• “I expected the economy to slow down in a fairly orderly way, and this number — 187,000 — comes in continuing that pace,” Bostic said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin.
• “I’m comfortable. I’m not expecting this to be over in a short period of time.”
• “We are today in a restrictive stance, and as inflation continues to fall, the degree to which it’s restrictive actually grows as that gap between the inflation rate and our interest rate widens,” he said.
• “So I think that will put enough constraint on the economy that it will continue to slow. But again, I’m not expecting this to be a two-month or a three-month period.”
• “My outlook is that we’ll still be in a restrictive territory, well into 2024, and it’ll just take a while,” Bostic said.
• “It doesn’t surprise me that wages are still strong,” he said.
• “During this whole high inflation period, worker wages have trailed inflation for quite some time. And so we’re still in that catch-up period and I expect that we will still see strong wages.”

EUROPE & WORLD

Canada’s Economy Sheds Jobs But Wage Growth Stays High – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Canada’s economy unexpectedly shed jobs last month, signaling a softening labor market at the beginning of the second half of this year.
• The country lost 6,400 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.5%, the third straight monthly increase, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa.
• The figures missed the median estimate for a gain of 25,000 positions in a Bloomberg survey of economists, but matched expectations for the jobless rate.
• The still-tight jobs market, however, continues to boost workers’ compensation, with wages reaccelerating to 5%, beating expectations for a 4.1% gain and up from 3.9% a month earlier.
• July’s data, which followed a surprise gain of 59,900 jobs in June and 17,300 losses in May, shows an economy starting to gear down under the accumulated weight of 475 basis points of rate hikes by the Bank of Canada.
• So far this year, monthly employment growth has averaged 22,000.
• Last month, total hours worked were up 0.1% on a monthly basis and rose 2.1% compared to a year earlier.
• That points to relatively weaker economic momentum at the start of the third quarter, when economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect growth in gross domestic product to slow to 0.4%.
• Preliminary data indicated output growth slowed to 1% in the second quarter.
• The majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the bank to hold rates steady at 5%.
• With the jobless rate in Canada rising steadily since May, the three-month moving average now stands at 5.37%, up from the 12-month low of 5%.
• The participation rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 65.6%.

ECB Says Underlying Inflation in Euro Zone Probably Peaked – Bloomberg, 8/4/2023

• Underlying inflation in the euro zone has probably peaked, even though its exact level remains difficult to determine, according to the European Central Bank.
• The recent easing is mainly driven by non-energy industrial goods, the ECB wrote in a pre-release of its economic bulletin published on Friday, adding that a decline for services appears to have started too.
• At the same time, it said that domestic price pressures are becoming more prominent, echoing the Governing Council’s conclusions last week.
• The dashboard officials will consult includes “permanent exclusion-based measures” that strip out certain more volatile items, “temporary exclusion-based measures” that disregard some volatile dynamics, and “model-based measures” that rely on economic relations to identify stickiness.
• “Underlying inflation measures should capture more persistent and generalised developments across prices, abstracting from volatile or idiosyncratic relative price movements, and thereby provide an informative signal about where headline inflation will settle in the medium term,” the ECB wrote.

Ukrainian Naval Drones Attack Russian Black Sea Port – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• Ukraine struck one of Russia’s largest ports with naval drones, disrupting shipments of grain and oil as fighting in the Black Sea intensified, threatening world food and energy markets.
• Friday’s strike came after Russia hit numerous port and grain-terminal targets along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and along the Danube River, degrading Ukraine’s capacity for exporting grain and rattling nerves across the Middle East and Africa, major buyers of the country’s wheat and corn.
• The Russian Defense Ministry said it repelled the attack on the port at Novorossiysk, destroying two Ukrainian surface drones.
• A video published by the Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda and verified by Storyful, owned by The Wall Street Journal’s parent company News Corp, showed the bow of one of the drones plowing into the Ropucha-class landing ship, Olenegorsk Gornyak.
• Andrey Kravchenko, mayor of Novorossiysk, said the crews of the landing ship and another vessel, the Suvorovets, reacted quickly to avert any damage.
• The attack appears to be a Ukrainian attempt to strike at the centers of Russian grain export in the Black Sea.
• Russia also uses the port for exporting oil from its oil fields and those in Kazakhstan to world markets.

US Sailors Charged With Selling Military Secrets to China – Bloomberg, 8/3/2023

• Two US Navy sailors have been arrested on charges of providing sensitive US military information to China in exchange for money in what the Justice Department called a relentless effort by China to get US secrets.
• Jinchao Wei was the first person ever charged with espionage in the San Diego district, US Justice Department officials said at a press conference.
• Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, California, was charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe by a public official in Los Angeles.
• Both men are Chinese-born naturalized US citizens.
• Wei sent documents to China and received thousands of dollars, providing the country information on potential vulnerabilities of ships, photos of military hardware and scores of technical manuals, placing the safety of US sailors in jeopardy, prosecutors said.
• “The charges demonstrate the PRC’s determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means so it can be used to their advantage,” Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, told reporters Thursday during a press conference in San Diego.

Saudi Arabia Charts Solo Path on OPEC Policy – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• Saudi Arabia is increasingly driving an oil-production strategy to boost prices that is at odds with other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in a push to fund the kingdom’s ambitious development projects.
• For now, it is working, as oil prices have ticked steadily higher in recent weeks.
• But Saudi Arabia’s unilateral moves to cut output carry a significant longer-term risk of splintering the alliance if Riyadh forces other smaller producers to join the cuts, according to industry analysts and others familiar with OPEC’s internal dynamics.
• On Friday, members of OPEC and its Russia-led allies met virtually to discuss the outlook for oil demand, which would help the group plan its production strategy in the coming months.
• The cartel in a brief statement said it would adjust production levels depending on market conditions.

Crypto Heists Funneling Billions to North Korea’s Nuclear Program Attract Senate Scrutiny – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• Three Democratic senators are pressing the Biden administration to disclose more information about its efforts to counteract North Korea’s dependence on stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear program, calling Pyongyang’s growing reliance on digital assets to evade sanctions a severe national security threat.
• In a letter sent Thursday to the White House and Treasury Department, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Tim Kaine (D., Va.) and Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) asked for details on any steps being taken by the administration to address the problem and for updated estimates on the scale and scope of revenue being generated by the cash-strapped regime through ill-gotten cryptocurrency.
• “North Korea has methodically built its expertise in digital assets over the past few years,” the senators wrote to Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, and Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
• The Treasury Department, the senators said, “must act quickly and decisively to crack down on illicit crypto activity and protect our national security.”

China Set to Impose Mobile Device Limits for Minors – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• Beijing is preparing to roll out new restrictions on the amount of time that young people spend on mobile devices, putting China even further ahead of other countries in controlling how, and how much time, its youth engage in the online world.
• The country’s top internet regulator announced draft guidelines this week to govern the mobile internet use of children under the age of 18.
• The proposal requires device makers to impose time limits on internet use for children, and app operators to roll out different pools of content for youths of different ages.
• The regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, said the new requirements were meant to protect the physical and mental health of young people.

U.S. to Place Armed Sailors, Marines on Tankers to Stop Iran’s Attacks – Wall Street Journal, 8/4/2023

• The Pentagon is poised to offer armed sailors and Marines to commercial vessels transiting the Persian Gulf region to deter Iranian forces from attacking the ships, according to U.S. officials.
• The U.S. military would put the forces on commercial vessels that are considered vulnerable to attack by Iranian forces, particularly those ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
• The scale and scope of the new effort could mean hundreds of military personnel already deployed to the region would be offered to ship operators whose vessels are considered high risk.
• Before offering the additional security to those ship operators, military officials will consider the country to which the ship is flagged, the nationality of the owner, the composition of the crew and the nature of the cargo, according to an official.

Factmonster – TODAY in HISTORY

• Printer John Peter Zenger, defended by Andrew Hamilton, was acquitted of libel in a case that helped foster freedom of the press. – 1735
• Thomas Stevens became the first person to bicycle across the United States. He later bicycled around the world. – 1884
• Germany invaded Belgium and, in response, Britain declared war on Germany. – 1914
• Denmark ceded the Danish West Indies, including the Danish Virgin Islands, to the United States for $25 million. – 1916
• Anne Frank and her family were found hiding in Amsterdam by Nazis. – 1944
• President Carter signed a congressional act that established the Department of Energy. – 1977

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