Per our discussion Wednesday about federal marijuana legalization -- including the open mindedness of the most conservative member of SCOTUS -- a couple readers contribute today…

“The opinion of a veteran and career healthcare professional: I stand in solid support of changing the laws that restrict both medical and recreational use of marijuana. 

“The exaggerated fears about this subject were created by PACS supporting the status quo despite the evidence to the contrary. 

“In contrast to the sanctioned social damage of alcohol to individuals and families, marijuana legalization is a no-brainer.”

And another reader notes: “Federal laws that can’t be enforced will change eventually.”

Send your opinions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Your Rundown for Monday, July 12, 2021...

Billionaires’ Space Race

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson has won the billionaires’ space race, defeating, for the moment, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

“[Virgin Galactic] successfully completed a fully crewed test flight into suborbital space on Sunday, a major milestone in the commercial space race and step towards the company’s goal for commercial service in early 2022,” CNBC says.

The VSS Unity launched in New Mexico with two pilots, Virgin Galactic’s founder Branson and three company employees.

The spacecraft rocketed “to an altitude above 50 miles (80 km), which NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. military classify as space,” says an article at website Space.com. “They will earn astronaut wings for reaching that height.”

Crew members experienced four minutes of weightlessness, and the entire flight clocked in at about 90 minutes.

What’s interesting to us earthbound investors is how Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) shares have responded. First, Virgin Galactic’s stock has doubled in 2021… anticipating Branson’s foray into space.

And in premarket trading this morning, shares rose about 7%. After which, they’ve dropped about 11%. “Shares of Virgin Galactic slipped,” CNBC says, “after the company filed to sell up to $500 million in common stock.”

The company appears to be capitalizing on its good PR to float shares to reinvest in the company, according to its SEC filing. Investors don’t seem convinced.

We’ll have more on the billionaires’ space race forthcoming…

Market Rundown for Monday, July 12, 2021

S&P 500 futures are up just 6 points to 4,376.

Oil is down 1.3% to $73.61 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s down $16 to $1,794.50 per ounce.

Bitcoin is down 1.4% at the time of writing to $33,457.

Send your comments and questions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Hope your week’s off to a great start… Check back Wednesday for more.

For The Rundown,

Aaron Gentzler
Editor, The Rundown
TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com